AtfE-UNIVERto 


IEUNIVE 


\\EUNIVER5//v 


5ME-UNIVERS//. 


EXERCISES 


AT  THE 


UNVEILING  OF  THE  STATUE 


OF 


THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED, 


AT    PORTLAND,    MAINE, 


AUGUST   THIRTY-FIRST, 


NINETEEN    HUNDRED    AND    TEN. 


STEPHEN    BERRY   COMPANY,    PRINTERS, 
PORTLAND,  MAINE. 


EXERCISES 


550G83 


N  April  4,  1905,  a  resolution  looking  to  the  erection 
in  Portland  of  a  monument  to  the  memory  of 
Thomas  Brackett  Reed  was  introduced  into  the  Com- 
mon Council  of  the  city  by  Mr.  Luther  B.  Roberts, 
then  one  of  its  members,  and  was  at  once  adopted  by 
both  boards  of  the  city  government  and  approved  by 
the  Mayor.  A  committee,  consisting  of  William  L. 
Cobb,  George  A.  Dow  and  Charles  Carr  on  the  part 
of  the  Aldermen,  and  John  W.  Turner,  Jr.,  Luther 
B.  Roberts,  Frank  D.  Marshall,  George  W.  Beyer, 
Arthur  E.  Craig,  on  the  part  of  the  Common  Council, 
was  appointed  to  carry  into  execution  the  terms  of  the 
resolution. 

On  the  nineteenth  of  May,  1905,  a  meeting  of  citi- 
zens to  form  the  Thomas  Brackett  Reed  Memorial 
Association  was  held  in  the  Common  Council  Rooms 
and  the  following  gentlemen,  John  Marshall  Brown, 
Augustus  G.  Paine,  George  M.  Seiders,  Henry  Deer- 
ing,  George  E.  Bird,  Charles  F.  Flagg,  George  H. 
Weeks,  John  C.  Small,  were  joined  as  associates  with 
the  special  committee  of  the  city  council,  and  it  was 
voted  that  all  present  be  made  members  of  this  gen- 
eral committee. 

Thereupon  a  voluntary  organization  was  formed 
with  Joseph  W.  Symonds  as  President. 


Col.  Augustus  G.  Paine  of  New  York  made  a  large 
contribution  to  the  fund  himself  and  secured  large 
subscriptions  in  New  York,  and  the  response  to  the 
circular  of  the  Association  in  Portland  was  generous 
and  prompt. 

During  the  legislative  session  of  1907,  a  charter, 
drawn  by  Hon.  George  M.  Seiders,  was  granted  to  the 
Association.  It  was  approved  on  March  20,  1907,  and 
its  officers  elected. 

CHARTER. 

AN  ACT  TO  INCORPORATE    THE    THOMAS    BRACKETT 
REED  MEMORIAL  ASSOCIATION. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represent- 
atives in  Legislatw  e  assembled,  as  follows : 

SECTION  i.  Joseph  W.  Symonds,  George  M.  Seid- 
ers, John  Marshall  Brown,  John  C.  Small,  Frank  D. 
Marshall,  Luther  B.  Roberts  and  George  W.  Beyer, 
all  of  Portland,  State  of  Maine,  and  Augustus  G.  Paine 
of  New  York,  State  of  New  York,  or  such  of  them  as 
may  by  vote  accept  this  charter,  with  their  associates, 
successors  and  assigns,  are  hereby  made  a  body  cor- 
porate to  be  known  as  the  Thomas  Brackett  Reed 
Memorial  Association,  and  as  such  shall  be  possessed 
of  all  the  powers,  privileges  and  immunities  and  sub- 
ject to  all  the  duties  and  obligations  conferred  on 
corporations  by  law,  except  as  herein  specified  and 
provided.  * 


SECTION  2.  The  corporation  hereby  created  shall 
be  located  at  Portland,  County  of  Cumberland,  State 
of  Maine,  and  may  have  its  office  for  the  transaction 
of  business  in  said  City  of  Portland. 

SECTION  3.  The  business  and  purpose  of  this  cor- 
poration are  as  follows :  To  erect  a  suitable  memo- 
rial to  the  late  Thomas  Brackett  Reed  in  said  City  of 
Portland,  and  to  this  end,  to  solicit,  collect  and  receive 
moneys  and  property,  and  to  invest  the  same ;  to  bor- 
row money,  contract  loans  and  accept  in  trust  be- 
quests and  gifts  of  every  description,  all  of  which 
moneys  and  property  are  to  be  used  and  expended  for 
the  purposes  of  this  association  and  for  no  other. 

The  amount  of  the  capital  which  this  corporation 
may  acquire  and  hold  shall  not  exceed  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

SECTION  4.  The  officers  of  this  corporation  shall 
be  a  president,  one  or  more  vice-presidents,  treasurer, 
board  of  directors,  secretary  and  an  executive  com- 
mittee, and  such  other  officers  and  committees  as  the 
by-laws  may  prescribe  or  the  board  of  directors  may 
create.  The  number  of  vice-presidents,  board  of  di- 
rectors and  executive  committee  shall  be  fixed  by  the 
by-laws. 

SECTION  5.  The  corporate  powers  of  this  corpora- 
tion shall  be  vested  in  the  board  of  directors,  a  ma- 
jority of  whom  shall  be  residents  of  this  state,  and  who 
shall  be  elected,  as  also  all  other  officers  and  commit- 

3 


tees  provided,  at  the  first  meeting  held  by  the  incor- 
porators,  and  shall  hold  office  for  one  year  and  until 
their  successors  are  chosen.  All  other  committees, 
when  required,  may  be  appointed  by  the  executive 
committee.  The  business  affairs  of  this  corporation 
shall  be  entrusted  to  the  executive  committee,  to  be 
elected  from  the  board  of  directors. 

SECTION  6.  The  executive  committee  shall  have 
authority  to  collect,  invest,  secure  and  manage  the 
moneys  and  property  of  the  association ;  to  make  all 
necessary  contracts,  which  shall  be  signed  and  exe- 
cuted by  the  president  and  treasurer,  and  generally  to 
oversee  and  manage  the  affairs  of  the  corporation. 

SECTION  7.  This  corporation  being  intended  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  erecting  a  suitable  memorial  to  the 
late  Thomas  Brackett  Reed  and  matters  incidental 
thereto,  and  the  moneys  and  property  collected  for  that 
purpose  being  wholly  gratuitous  gifts,  it  is  provided 
that  neither  the  corporation  nor  the  moneys  held  by 
it,  shall  be  subject  to  taxation  or  charges  under  either 
the  general  or  special  laws  of  this  state. 

SECTION  8.  All  persons  who  have  contributed  or 
who  may  hereafter  contribute  funds  or  property  for 
the  purpose  of  this  corporation  shall  be  entitled  to 
membership  therein,  and  no  member  shall  be  liable  to 
assessment  or  corporate  debts  beyond  the  amount  of 
his  subscription  or  contribution. 

SECTION  9.  Upon  the  erection  of  a  memorial  as 
herein  provided,  this  corporation  may  convey  and  de- 


liver  the  same  to  the  city  of  Portland  and  said  city 
may  take  it  over,  and  shall  thereafter  carefully  pre- 
serve, protect  and  maintain  it. 

SECTION  10.  The  first  meeting  of  this  corporation 
may  be  called  by  one  of  its  said  associates,  by  giving 
in  hand  or  by  mail  four  days'  written  notice  to  each 
associate,  stating  the  time  and  place  of  said  meeting. 
At  such  meeting  by-laws  may  be  adopted,  officers 
elected  as  herein  provided  and  other  business  trans- 
acted. 

SECTION  1 1.  All  acts  of  the  association  heretofore 
performed  and  carried  out  or  in  the  process  of  being 
carried  out,  are  hereby  authorized  and  legalized  in  so 
far  as  they  conform  with  the  laws  of  the  state. 

SECTION  12.  This  act  shall  take  effect  when  ap- 
proved. 

Approved  March  20,  1907. 

In  this  corporation  the  voluntary  organization  was 
merged  and  the  results  of  its  labor  transferred  to  the 
corporation. 

It  was  soon  seen  that  the  amount  of  the  subscrip- 
tions was  entirely  adequate  for  the  erection  of  the 
monument,  and  on  the  eighth  day  of  May,  1908,  the 
contract  was  made  with  Mr.  Burr  C.  Miller  of  Wilkes 
Barre,  Pa.,  an  American  sculptor  resident  in  Paris,  for 
the  erection  of  the  statue  according  to  a  design  which 
he  presented. 


By  the  action  of  the  City  Government  of  Portland 
on  the  fifth  day  of  August,  1907,  the  plot  of  ground 
on  which  the  statue  now  stands  was  "  set  apart  and 
designated  as  the  site  of  such  monument  forever." 

On  the  thirty-first  day  of  August,  1910,  the  cere- 
mony of  unveiling  the  statue  took  place  according  to 
the  following  order  of  exercises : 

ORDER   OF   EXERCISES. 

Hon.  Joseph  W.  Symonds,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  Association, 
presiding 

Music — American  Overture 

CHANDLER'S  BAND 
Invocation 

Rev.  WILLIAM  H.  FENN,  D.  D. 

Address — The  History  of  the  Statue 

Colonel  AUGUSTUS  G.  PAINE 

Address — Thomas  Brackett  Reed  in  Early  Life 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 

Music — Pilgrim  Chorus,  from  Tannhauser 

CHANDLER'S  BAND 
Poem — Tom  Reed's  School  Days 

Rev.  EDWARD  N.  POMEROY 
Oration — Thomas  Brackett  Reed 

Hon.  SAMUEL  W.  McCALL,  LL.D., 
M.  C.  from  Massachusetts 

Music — Sextette,  from  Lucia 

CHANDLER'S  BAND 

Unveiling  of  the  Statue 

THOMAS  REED  BALENTINE, 
Grandson  of  Thomas  Brackett  Reed 

Introduction  of  the  Sculptor,  Mr.  Burr  C.  Miller 

6 


Presentation  of  the  Statue 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 
Acceptance  of  the  Statue 

Hon.  CHARLES  A.  STROUT, 

Mayor  of  Portland 
Benediction 

Rev.  ASA  DALTON,  D.  D. 


Rev.  William  H.  Fenn,  D.  D.,  of  Portland,  offered 
the  prayer. 

Colonel  Paine  was  introduced  by  the  President  of 
the  Association : 

The  history  of  the  statue  will  now  be  given  by  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  in  charge  of  the  unveil- 
ing, who  has  been,  himself  alone,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  a  large  part  of  the  Thomas  Brackett  Reed 
Memorial  Association,  an  early  school-boy  friend  of 
Mr.  Reed  in  the  old  Portland  High  School,  a  most 
intimate,  valued  and  life-long  friend,  who  in  the  past 
has  not  been  forgotten  in  Portland,  notwithstanding 
his  home  has  been  elsewhere  for  many  years.  In  this 
statue  of  his  friend,  we  shall  all  have  a  new  reason,  an 
ample  reason,  never  to  forget  him,  Colonel  Augustus 
G.  Paine  of  New  York. 


COL.  PAINE'S  ADDRESS. 

After  the  passing  away  of  the  dear  friend  whom  we 
all  loved,  one  who  honored  us  with  his  friendship,  and 
his  State  and  nation  by  his  fidelity  and  devotion  to 


duty,  it  seemed  fitting  that  his  friends  should  provide 
a  memorial  worthy  of  him  and  of  the  city  of  his  birth, 
to  be  placed  here. 

This  sentiment  crystallized  in  the  formation  of  the 
Thomas  Brackett  Reed  Memorial  Association,  with 
Mr.  Reed's  old  schoolmate,  classmate  and  life  long 
friend,  Hon.  Joseph  W.  Symonds,  its  president.  With 
the  cordial  co-operation  of  those  in  charge  of  Port- 
land's municipal  affairs,  the  work  was  undertaken. 
A  few  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Reed  were  given  the  op- 
portunity to  subscribe  to  the  fund,  which  was  speedily 
forthcoming,  and  your  committee  after  a  long,  careful 
investigation,  awarded  the  contract  to  a  young  Ameri- 
can sculptor,  who  has  already  achieved  distinction,  and 
the  result  of  his  uninterrupted  work  for  nearly  two 
years  was  inspected  in  Paris  by  a  member  of  your 
committee  and  accepted,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  know 
that  the  complete  work  has  received  the  unqualified 
approval  of  the  most  competent  critics  in  that  centre 
of  modern  art,  the  city  of  Paris,  where  it  has  been  on 
exhibition  in  the  Salon  while  awaiting  removal  to  this 
city. 

The  committee  takes  this  opportunity  to  thank  all 
those  who  have  lent  their  aid  in  this  undertaking  and 
ventures  to  hope  its  work  may  meet  with  your  approv- 
al. 


ADDRESS   OF   THE   PRESIDENT  OF  THE 
ASSOCIATION. 

The  Thomas  Brackett  Reed  Memorial  Association 
will  not  deny  its  great  disappointment  in  finding  that 
the  President  could  not  attend  this  ceremony  of  for- 
mally unveiling  the  statue.  Untoward  circumstances 
and  the  duties  of  his  great  office  have  kept  him  away. 

We  can  have,  therefore,  only  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  that  he  wished  and  hoped  to  be  present  and 
the  honor  to  believe  he  shares  with  us  the  regret  that 
he  could  not  come. 

But  this  vast  concourse  of  citizens  from  all  the 
walks  of  life — the  church,  the  bar,  the  profession  of 
medicine,  from  the  many  paths  of  business  and  pleas- 
ure, learning  and  labor — assembled  ( one  might  say ) 
from  all  parts  of  the  Republic,  of  itself  attests  and  il- 
lustrates, only  less  strikingly  than  the  presence  of  the 
President  might  do,  our  country's  grateful  memory  of 
Mr.  Reed's  public  service,  giving  rare  distinction  to 
the  day,  investing  the  occasion  and  the  event  with 
historic  interest  and  charm. 

The  orator  of  the  day,  too,  Mr.  Reed's  personal 
friend,  by  his  side  in  the  great  historic  encounters  in 
the  national  House  of  Representatives,  foremost  in  the 
fray,  dealing  the  heaviest  blows,  with  him,  at  the  height 
of  his  own  lofty  public  service  honors  us  all  by  com- 
ing to  us  to  speak  in  commemoration  of  his  great  asso- 
ciate now  sunk  in  death. 

9 


The  national  government,  perhaps  in  every  branch 
of  it,  the  Congress,  the  Courts,  the  Executive  Depart- 
ments, the  Army,  the  Navy,  finds  representatives  here ; 
among  them,  the  distinguished  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
during  the  late  war,  Ex-Governor  Long  of  Massachu- 
setts, in  whose  many  titles  of  honor  and  renown  his 
native  state  always  likes  to  claim  a  share. 

Bowdoin  College,  too,  is  present  by  members  of  its 
Faculty  and  by  many  graduates,  Bowdoin  College, 
which  in  the  old  days  Mr.  Reed  so  fondly  loved,  to 
which  more  recently  he  gave  faithful  allegiance  and 
high  service  at  the  college  Centennial ;  one  of  the  pro- 
fessorships in  which  forever  holds  his  name. 

Not  only  is  the  new  Bowdoin  present,  but  from  the 
Bowdoin  of  the  past  come  classmates,  our  Congress- 
man Allen,  Came  of  Alfred,  Kendall  of  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  Major  in  the  regular  army,  Stubbs  of  Strong, 
Maine,  men  who  knew  him  in  college,  some  of  them 
having  journeyed  far  to  express  by  their  presence  their 
personal  admiration  for  him  and  affectionate  respect 
for  his  memory ;  among  these  Bowdoin  men,  the 
rarely  accomplished  scholar  and  gentleman,  during  Mr. 
Reed's  college  course  our  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and 
Oratory,  himself  in  the  flush  of  early  manhood  then, 
before  that  brilliant  military  career,  familiar  to  the 
world  for  a  generation  now,  had  even  begun — famil- 
iar now,  but  in  the  remote  future  to  glow  with  new 
light  upon  the  pages  of  yet  unwritten  history ;  before, 
long  before  in  civil  life  the  highest  honors  of  the 


Academy  and  the  State,  the  Presidency  of  the  Col- 
lege, the  chief  magistracy  of  Maine,  awaited  him  on 
the  advent  of  peace ;  the  surviving  member  of  the 
grave  and  reverend  Bowdoin  Faculty  of  Mr.  Reed's 
time  in  college,  General  Chamberlain. 

My  eyes,  too,  while  I  speak,  fall  upon  another  Ex- 
Governor  of  Maine,  present  in  his  honored  age  under 
this  inclement  sky,  bringing  with  him  longer  Bowdoin 
memories  than  any  of  the  rest  of  us  can  have,  the 
Honorable  Frederick  Robie  of  Gorham. 

Our  country  believed  in  Mr.  Reed  while  he  lived. 
It  is  hardly  an  extravagance  to  say  that  in  this  repre- 
sentative gathering  it  assembles  now  to  do  honor  to 
his  memory. 

All  this  is  true,  but  in  a  special  sense  what  we  cele- 
brate to-day  is  a  Portland  event.  Upon  this  I  hope  I 
may  insist  for  a  moment,  because  it  affords  the  only 
reason  for  the  brief,  preliminary  part  I  am  to  take  in 
the  speaking. 

The  citizens  of  Portand  may  well  repeat  of  Mr. 
Reed  what  Rufus  Choate  said  of  Daniel  Webster  at 
Dartmouth : 

"  Others  mourn  and  praise  him  by  his  more  distant 
and  more  general  titles  to  fame  and  remembrance ;  his 
supremacy  of  intellect,  his  statesmanship  of  so  many 
years,  his  eloquence  of  reason  and  of  the  heart,  his 
love  of  country,  incorruptible,  conscientious,  and  ruling 
every  hour  and  act." 


We  come,  his  neighbors,  friends,  brethren,  "  to  own 
a  closer  tie,  to  indulge  an  emotion  more  personal  and 
more  fond,"  pride  and  exultation  for  what  he  was  and 
what  he  accomplished  mingling  with  our  sorrow  for 
his  all  too  early  death. 

Mr.  Reed's  birthplace  in  Portland,  as  all  know,  was 
next  door  to  Longfellow's.  This  region  of  Fore  and 
Hancock  Streets  in  our  times  has  fallen  somewhat  from 
its  former  estate.  The  beautiful  beach  of  Longfellow's 
time,  along  the  margin  of  which  Fore  Street  ran,  on 
which  the  great  waves  came  tumbling  in  through  the 
broad  ship  channel  from  the  open  sea,  the  view  extend- 
ing across  the  harbor  to  the  islands  which,  as  he  says, 
were  the  Hesperides  of  all  his  boyish  dreams,  has  dis- 
appeared. It  is  a  railroad  yard  now  and  stately  ships, 
at  safe  anchorages  or  in  the  huge  docks,  obstruct  the 
sight.  The  progress  of  decay  has  gone  far  with  the 
buildings  upon  both  the  old  homesteads.  But  the 
birthplaces  of  the  truest  and  loftiest  of  American 
poets  and  of  the  American  statesman  whose  memory 
we  are  assembled  to  honor  to-day  are  still  there,  side 
by  side. 

Mr.  Reed  traced  his  descent  from  the  first  settler 
upon  these  lands  north  of  Fore  River,  and  his  own 
words  glow  with  enthusiasm  over  the  great  part  his 
ancestor,  George  Cleeve,  played  in  defending  his  pos- 
sessions against  rival  claimants,  Royalist  or  Puritan,  at 
home  and  abroad,  in  the  bitter  feuds  and  sharp  tran- 
sitions and  vicissitudes  of  Cromwell's  time.  Mr.  Reed's 


12 


middle  name,  Brackett,  continues  that  of  an  early  an- 
cestor, Anthony  Brackett,  prominent  in  local  history ; 
and  from  early  boyhood  until  he  went  to  Congress  his 
home  was  on  Brackett  Street,  within  hardly  more  than 
a  stone's  throw  from  the  site  of  this  memorial  monu- 
ment. The  spot  on  which  we  stand  is  part  of  the  an- 
cestral Brackett  Farm.  This  Western  Promenade 
was  his  early  playground  and  always  a  favorite  haunt 
of  his.  Here  the  boy  played  or  dreamed,  here  the  man 
walked  and  talked  with  his  friends  or  mused  and 
thought  alone,  looking  upon  the  beautiful  foreground 
of  the  picture  across  Fore  River  or  over  to  the  Ossipee 
Hills,  one  of  the  outer  boundaries  of  the  region  he  was 
so  long  to  represent  in  Congress,  or  off  to  the  moun- 
tains of  New  Hampshire,  "  blue  with  loftiness  and  dis- 
tance," or  white  in  the  snow  and  sunlight. 

In  the  Portland  High  School  he  first  half-awoke  from 
his  early  dreaming  and  from  a  sense  of  loneliness  that 
I  think  attended  his  boyhood,  and  the  slumbering 
immensity  of  his  native  resources  became  dimly  con- 
scious of  itself.  To  the  last  of  his  life  he  was  accustomed 
to  speak  in  a  hushed  and  intense  way  of  what  he  owed 
to  his  severe  teacher  there,  Moses  Lyford.  He  did 
not  forget  his  obligations  to  that  school,  to  the  strict- 
ness of  its  discipline,  and  the  value  of  its  early  associa- 
tions to  him,  when  he  delivered  his  address  at  the 
Portland  Centennial  in  1886. 

The  personal  religious  experience,  through  which 
Mr.  Reed  passed  in  early  youth,  should  not  be  over- 
is 


looked.  Under  the  influence  of  the  brilliant  pastor  of 
State  Street  Church,  Mr.  Carpenter,  he  became  a  con- 
vert and  united  with  the  church.  When  he  entered 
college  he  joined  the  Bowdoin  Praying  Circle  and  the 
record  of  his  membership  still  remains.  Whatever 
changes  of  intellectual  belief  may  have  occurred  later 
— of  his  inmost  religious  faith  I  should  not  venture  to 
speak — it  is  true,  I  think,  that  this  experience  was  not 
without  lasting  effect  upon  his  character,  that  what  was 
vital  in  it  retained  its  hold  upon  his  mind  and  heart. 
The  high  motive,  the  pure  feeling,  the  fervor  and  hope, 
which  the  ideals  of  life — as  he  caught  a  glimpse  of 
them  then — inspired,  left  their  traces  in  the  serene  and 
lofty  rectitude  of  his  life,  in  its  truthfulness  to  itself 
and  its  own  best  standards.  He  was  at  all  times  in- 
tensely thoughtful  upon  the  problems  of  human  des- 
tiny. His  prize  theme  at  Bowdoin  was  upon  "  The 
Fear  of  Death."  There  was  something  of  the  early 
vision  which  did  not  fade  into  the  light  of  common 
day;  which  remained  with  him  always  in  life  and  I 
doubt  not  in  death. 

Sometimes  when  the  two  things  have  occurred  to  my 
mind,  on  the  one  hand  the  intensity  of  his  passionate 
nature,  on  the  other  hand  the  exceeding  and  supreme 
moral  beauty  of  his  life,  I  have  thought  of  Carlyle's 
description  of  our  great  northern  constellation,  Bootes 
the  Hunter,  leading  his  hunting-dogs  over  the  zenith 
in  a  leash  of  sidereal  fire  from  which  they  cannot  break. 
With  Mr.  Reed,  the  passions  never  broke  from  his 

14 


flaming  will,  disciplined  by  the  patient  struggles  of 
boyhood,  imbued  by  personal  experience  in  early  youth 
with  the  true  spirit  of  the  religious  life,  lingering  in  its 
influence  through  whatever  changes  or  contrasts  of 
later  thought  and  experience. 

In  Bowdoin  College  he  buried  himself  in  books, 
absorbed  in  a  passionate  reading  of  all  English  litera- 
ture. History,  eloquence,  philosophy,  poetry,  novels, 
dramas,  he  was  familiar  with  the  literature  of  them  all. 
His  reading  was  so  intense  and  its  range  so  wide,  as 
to  cause  him  to  neglect  somewhat  the  regular  studies 
of  the  college  course.  He  failed  of  a  Junior  part — 
which  was  then  assigned  to  a  few  of  the  best  scholars 
of  the  Junior  class.  This  event,  I  think,  came  to  him 
like  a  sudden  shock,  startling  him  from  his  wayward 
wanderings  in  literature.  During  the  Senior  year  his 
recitations  were  simply  marvelous.  In  Butler's  Anal- 
ogy they  were  the  delight  and  pride  of  President 
Woods  and  apparently  reached  his  ideal  of  scholarship. 
Nothing  more  could  be  said  for  them  than  that.  For 
President  Woods  was  himself  so  fine,  the  resources  of 
his  reading  and  experience,  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
world  and  of  books,  were  so  rare,  gentle  blood,  high 
breeding  and  fine  thought  had  so  wrought  their  per- 
fect work  in  him,  that  his  very  presence  was  a  disci- 
pline and  a  delight,  even  as  his  memory  is  now.  In 
all  the  Senior  studies  Mr.  Reed  excelled.  Moreover, 
the  whole  tenor  of  his  college  life  gave  an  impression 
of  reserved  force,  of  powers  not  yet  called  into  action, 


prophetic  of  great  results  in  the  future.    The  note  that 
had  in  it  the  trumpet-call  had  not  yet  been  sounded. 

I  must  pass  by  the  years  of  patient  professional 
study  in  Portland — a  part  of  the  time  in  the  office  of 
our  distinguished  fellow-townsman,  the  Hon.  Sewall 
C.  Strout,  who  hoped  to  be  present  to-day — the  ven- 
ture in  California,  the  admission  to  practice  there,  his 
appointment  and  service  in  the  Navy,  his  return  to 
Portland  at  the  close  of  the  war,  the  period  of  valuable 
legislative  service,  his  brilliant  career  as  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, his  work  as  City  Solicitor,  the  ten  years — hardly 
more  than  that — in  which  he  acquired  the  high  stand- 
ing at  the  Bar,  which  was  one  of  the  grounds  of  the 
constant  and  universal  admiration  and  respect  for  him 
in  Maine.  These  are  but  incidents  which  preceded  his 
election  to  Congress  in  the  fall  of  1876,  golden  mile- 
stones, along  which  may  be  traced  the  whole  course  of 
his  earlier  life.  But  during  these  years  how  deep  had 
the  foundation  been  laid,  far  below  the  surface,  on 
which  in  the  future  great  achievement  might  surely  be 
wrought,  great  fame  might  securely  stand. 

I  am  fortunate  in  being  able  to  speak  of  Mr.  Reed 
from  the  intimacies  of  early  childhood.  We  were  boys 
together,  always  friends,  classmates  in  school,  class- 
mates in  college,  young  lawyers  with  adjoining  offices 
in  the  old,  happy,  careless,  briefless  days  when  the 
expense  of  repairing  the  office-chairs  which  broke  down 
under  him,  or  which  betrayed  signs  of  infirmity  after 

16 


he  was  gone,  was  a  consideration  not  to  be  regarded 
by  either  of  us  with  entire  indifference. 

No  boyhood  ever  more  glowed  with  the  dream  cf 
greatness,  of  greatness  in  action,  of  high  conduct  and 
service  and  usefulness  in  the  world  of  men.  None 
ever  more  patiently  J^ided  its  time,  accumulating  from 
all  intellectual  regions  the  vast  resources  which  the 
future  was  to  charge  with  power.  None  ever  kept  its 
eye  fixed  more  steadily  upon  the  goal  or  trod  the  path- 
way to  the  goal  with  firmer  or  surer  step.  No  boyhood 
as  it  passed  by  ever  left  behind  it  a  more  shining  ex- 
ample of  truthfulness  to  itself  and  to  others,  of  upright- 
ness, virtue,  honor,  of  the  sway  of  high  motives  and 
noble  sentiments  over  its  whole  course.  There  was 
no  waste  of  time  and  no  hurry — always  leisure  for  a 
pleasantry,  not  infrequently  for  sarcasm  or  invective. 
To  a  stranger  he  might  seem  indifferent  or  idle,  but 
there  was  always  the  aspiring  mind  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  power  and  if  the  step  was  sometimes  slow,  it 
was  still  the  step  of  the  giant.  When  he  spoke,  the 
drawl  was  heavy  and  languid,  perhaps ;  but  from  it,  as 
from  the  idle  summer  cloud,  at  any  instant  the  light- 
ning might  flash  and  strike.  He  was  not  wealthy;  he 
was  poor.  But  his  severe  methods  brought  within  his 
reach  all  the  advantages  wealth  can  afford  a  young 
man.  He  never  indulged  an  extravagance  that  would 
cripple  his  independence  or  mortgage  the  labor  of 
tomorrow  to  make  it  good.  All  he  wanted  of  money 
was  to  give  him  opportunity,  "  opportunity,  mightier 
3  J7 


even  than  conquerors  and  prophets" ;  and  self-restraint, 
self-denial,  self-control,  a  high-minded  economy  and  ex- 
actness in  expenditure,  diligence  and  industry  that 
never  flagged,  were  the  instruments  by  which  he  wrung 
from  the  narrowness  of  his  situation  the  golden  oppor- 
tunities of  his  youth,  the  preludj  and  the  preparation 
for  the  work  of  manhood. 

If  there  is  a  boyhood  now,  familiar  as  his  was  with 
these  simpler  and  sterner  virtues,  one  whose  cheek  so 
mantles  with  the  dream  of  future  usefulness  to  the 
state,  that  boyhood,  whatever  external  circumstances 
or  accidents  of  fortune  surround  it,  attended  by  wealth 
or  under  the  stress  of  poverty,  is  to  his  as  the  true  heir, 
the  rightful  successor,  the  lineal  descendant. 

No  account  of  Mr.  Reed's  boyhood  would  be  com- 
plete without  recognizing  how  deeply  it  was  affected 
by  the  influence  of  William  Pitt  Fessenden.  He  was 
the  friend  of  the  great  senator's  sons.  The  youngest 
of  them,  who  was  afterwards  killed  at  Manassas,  was 
for  a  time  Mr.  Reed's  roommate  in  college.  Mr.  Reed 
himself  had  early  attracted  the  senator's  attention,  and 
had  received  words  of  personal  praise  and  encourage- 
ment from  his  lips.  He  had  felt  the  senator's  help- 
ing hand  in  college. 

In  March,  1854,  when  Reed  was  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  of  age,  Mr.  Fessenden  almost  immediately  upon 
his  entrance  into  the  Senate  delivered  his  speech  on 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  in  which  there  was  a  note 
of  defiance  of  the  South,  such  as  had  never  been  heard 

18 


in  Congress  before.  His  reply  to  southern  senators 
threatening  secession,  that,  if  that  was  their  treason- 
able purpose,  they  need  not  delay  on  account  of  any- 
body at  the  North,  showed  that  he  had  broken  finally 
from  the  traditions  of  Webster  and  spoke  the  new  voice 
of  the  North.  While  the  gloom  of  the  terrible  trag- 
edy approached  Mr.  Fessenden  was  at  his  post  in  the 
Senate.  During  its  darkest  scenes  he  was  chairman 
of  the  Senate  Finance  Committee  and  later,  at  Presi- 
dent Lincoln's  request,  I  might  almost  say  command, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Returning  to  his  place  in 
the  Senate  after  the  war  was  over  he  exhausted  the 
resources  of  his  learning  and  genius  in  the  work  of 
reconstruction,  and  life  flowed  swiftly  from  his  grasp 
in  the  pressure  of  that  terrific  emergency.  But  a  more 
fearful  ordeal  was  still  before  him.  Sitting  as  Senator, 
in  his  office  of  Judge  upon  the  impeachment  of  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  to  the  dismay  of  many  of  his  constit- 
uents and  of  his  nearest  friends  through  the  North,  he 
voted  for  acquittal.  Some  of  you  remember  the  tu- 
mult of  wrath  and  indignation  that  ensued.  All  the 
imprisoned  winds  were  let  loose.  Men  forgot  that  in 
that  high  tribunal  Mr.  Fessenden  was  acting  judicial- 
ly ;  that  the  question  was  one  of  personal  judgment 
and  conscience,  not  of  public  policy  or  expediency. 
The  caldron  of  public  discontent — if  I  may  vary  the 
metaphor — was  still  seething  on  September  9,  1869, 
when  the  great  statesman  died  in  his  home  on  State 
Street,  at  the  same  age  at  which  Mr.  Reed's  life  was 

afterwards  to  close. 

19 


Every  step  of  this  great  career  was  followed  by  Mr. 
Reed  in  his  boyhood  and  youth.  He  always  believed 
Mr.  Fessenden  to  have  been  the  most  intellectual  man 
in  public  life  during  the  period  of  the  Rebellion.  A 
nobler  inspiration,  a  loftier  example,  no  young  man 
could  have  had.  One  can  hardly  overstate  the  in- 
fluence of  that  great  career  upon  the  brooding,  sensi- 
tive, secluded  boy,  upon  the  youth  whose  eyes  were 
just  fastening  upon  the  heights  of  the  future. 

This  was  the  young  man,  of  endowments  and  ex- 
perience such  as  I  have  indicated — his  boyhood  over- 
shadowed by  the  dim  tradition  of  an  ancestor  who  had 
acted  a  strong  part  in  the  world  of  men,  his  lineage 
derived  from  men  of  influence  and  prominence  in 
local  Colonial  history,  touched  with  some  regret  for 
the  past,  for  the  fallen  fortunes  of  his  family  ( his  father 
having  followed  the  sea  as  master  mariner,  but  not 
having  been  successful  as  the  world  counts  success ), 
at  first  somewhat  aloof  and  unfriended,  early  subjected 
to  severe  discipline  in  school,  with  pupils  in  advance 
of  him  there  whose  work  he  emulated,  with  those  upon 
the  same  form  with  him  with  whom  he  made  lifelong 
companionships  and  friendships,  a  passionate  dream 
of  religion  kindling  the  soul  to  a  vision  of  its  own 
1  ideals,  opportunity  early  offering  the  welcoming  hand 
to  genius,  the  gates  of  Bowdoin  College  flying  open 
on  golden  hinges  into  lands  of  enchantment,  great 
powers  wakened  into  sudden  action  there,  manhood 
ushered  in  upon  a  period  in  our  country's  history 

20 


when  the  clouds  of  civil  strife  were  black  upon  the 
southern  sky,  when  the  wrath  of  the  whirlwind  and 
some  strange  gloom  of  eclipse  seemed  to  be  gathering 
in  the  noonday  air,  and  the  solid  earth  to  be  tremulous 
with  the  long  roll  of  the  breaking  storm,  a  worthy 
part  acted  during  that  sad  fratricidal  war,  a  few  years 
after  the  war  of  intense  and  incessant  professional  ac- 
tivity and  achievement  and  brilliant  official  service, 
important  interests  committed  to  his  care  and  fine 
work  done  in  the  legislature  of  Maine,  with  many  en- 
couraging and  stimulating  influences  about  him,  but, 
above  all,  with  William  Pitt  Fessenden,  in  the  long 
and  bitter  crisis  giving  to  his  country  the  costly  sac- 
rifice of  his  genius  and  his  life,  for  neighbor  and  friend, 
Mentor  and  guide ; — 

This  was  the  young  man,  whom  in  March,  1877,  the 
first  district  of  Maine  sent  as  its  representative  to  the 
halls  of  the  American  Congress,  resolved  to  act  a  part 
there  worthy  of  himself  and  of  his  native  state,  use- 
ful to  the  country  and  the  world,  and  so  to  snatch 
power  and  fame  from  the  summits  of  human  life. 
What  he  did  there — the  dreams  of  youth  assuming 
form  in  the  solid  outline  and  substance  of  fact,  in 
strength  and  stateliness  of  character,  in  heroic  conduct 
— what  he  did  there  makes  part  of  the  fame  of  our 
native  land  now  as  it  will  make  part  of  its  history  for- 
ever. 


21 


During  the  exercises  a  sudden  shower  had  become 
so  threatening  that  it  was  deemed  advisable  not  to 
proceed  with  the  delivery  of  the  poem  and  oration  in 
the  open  air,  but  for  this  purpose  to  adjourn  to  the 
State  Street  Church.  This  was  done  and  after  the 
statue  had  been  unveiled  and  accepted  by  the  city  the 
poem  and  oration  were  there  delivered  before  a  crowded 
audience.  They  are  published  here  as  if  delivered  ac- 
cording to  the  regular  order  of  exercises. 


TOM  REED'S  SCHOOL  DAYS. 


BY   THE   REV.   EDWARD   N.   POMEROY,   A   BOYHOOD   FRIEND. 


'Tis  often  said  and  sung  in  prose  and  rhyme, 

While  justifying  an  eternal  plan  ; 
Of  all  the  products  of  the  loom  of  time, 

The  fairest  and  most  wonderful  is  man. 

'Tis  not  the  semblance  we  to-day  unveil, 
'Tis  not  the  scene  tradition  will  recall, 

Nor  yet  the  massive  bronze  that  will  prevail, — 
It  is — it  is  the  great  original. 

His  presence  dominated  hall  and  street ; 

His  voice  at  need  rang  stormy  music  then ; 
His  epigrams  we  oft  and  oft  repeat; 

We  meet  and  greet  no  more  this  man  of  men. 

22 


But  faithful  memory  conducts  us  back — 

To  far  off  scenes  of  trouble,  touched  with  joy, 

Along  the  lengthened  decades'  tangled  track — 
Back  to  the  school  room,  where  we  find  the  boy 

• 

Droll  is  the  drawl  when,  having  made  his  bow, 
The  new  declaimer  has  the  stage  and  floor ; 

And  deep  the  seer's  dream  revealing  now 
The  houses  hushed,  the  tables  on  a  roar ; 

The  nation's  fierce  arena  of  debate ; 

The  staying  of  her  gladiators'  game ; 
The  recognition  legislators  wait ; 

A  people's  plaudits  and  the  world's  acclaim. 

'Tis  in  the  school  room  that  the  strife  begins, — • 
Self  against  self,  with  conquest  or  defeat ; 

'Tis  here  the  baser  or  the  nobler  wins 

When,  issue  joined,  these  adversaries  meet. 

But  dauntless,  though  his  first  endeavors  fail, 
And  habit,  regnant  long,  resists  control ; 

Regarding  not  if  ridicule  assail, 

Ambition's  thrill  he  nurtures  in  his  soul. 

No  blatant  boast  of  arrogance  is  here, 
Nor  prophecy  of  battles  to  be  won  ; 

The  day  is  seized  and,  scorning  failure's  fear, 
The  struggle,  strenuous  and  long,  is  on ; 

Wherein,  though  once  impatient  of  restraint, 
He  flinched  from  discipline's  refining  fire, 

He  yet  shall  win,  surrendering  complaint, 
The  self-control  that  subjugates  desire. 

23 


Regarding  loss,  in  honor's  service,  gain  ; 

To  one  high  purpose  stubbornly  he  clings ; 
Resists  allurements  that  have  heroes  slain ; 

Nor  heeds  her  song,  whatever  siren  sings. 

So,  as  the  scroll  of  midnight  is  unrolled, 
Some  tireless  searcher,  with  illumined  eye, 

Resolving  mysteries  the  stars  enfold, 

Lets  fate,  and  chaos,  and  the  hours  go  by. 

The  harp  of  life  awakens  at  his  touch ; 

The  gleam  of  genius  steals  into  his  face ; 
He  bides  his  time  to  gather  in  his  clutch 

The  long  denied  ambitions  of  his  race. 

Ah,  ill  for  one,  the  favorite  of  fate, 
Of  gifts  exalted  or  a  noble  name, 

Whom  sloth  and  pleasure  charm,  and  enervate, 
And  bring  forgetfulness  in  place  of  fame. 

But  well  for  him,  in  cruel  fortune  brave, 

Who  molds  condition,  like  the  potter's  clay ; 

Whose  wit  and  wisdom  overmatch  the  grave, 
And  hold  the  foe  oblivion  at  bay. 

Majestic  Shade,  where  thou  abidest  now 
Beyond  defeat,  decrepitude,  and  dust, 

Accept  thy  schoolmate's  laurel  for  thy  brow  , 
Renown's  endowment  to  the  ages  trust. 


24 


THOMAS    BRACKETT    REED. 

BY  HON.  SAMUEL  W.  McCALL,  LL.D. 

A  statue  of  a  human  figure,  which  does  not  repre- 
sent a  mere  abstraction  but  a  real  and  once  breathing 
man,  draws  much  of  its  significance  from  the  nature 
of  the  forces  creating  it  and  also  from  a  fit  association 
with  the  spot  where  it  is  reared.  At  a  time  when  gov- 
ernment is  expected  to  do  everything,  it  is  becoming 
quite  too  much  the  fashion  to  build  monuments  by 
law  and  pay  for  them  by  money  taken  by  taxation  from 
the  people.  The  tribute  thus  rendered  involves  no 
special  sense  of  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  any  human 
being.  It  is  indeed  cold  compared  with  that  which  is 
paid  by  voluntary  gifts  and  comes  springing  from  the 
hearts  of  the  givers.  In  one  of  the  public  squares  of 
Washington  stands  a  figure  of  Lincoln.  It  is  not 
striking  merely  as  a  work  of  art  but  it  acquires  a  beauty 
and  a  pathos  from  the  fact  that  it  was  reared  by  many 
small  gifts  from  men  and  women  whom  his  immortal 
Proclamation  had  made  free.  It  is  surely  a  felicity 
that  the  statue  of  Thomas  Brackett  Reed  which  you 
unveil  to-day  should  have  been  raised  by  the  free  gifts 
of  those  who  knew  and  loved  him  and  not  from  a  levy 
upon  any  public  treasury.  Nothing  could  be  happier 
also  than  its  association  with  the  spot  where  it  is  placed. 
It  is  ideally  fitting  that  it  should  stand  in  the  streets 
where  he  once  played  as  a  boy,  in  the  city  where  he 
was  born  and  lived  nearly  his  'whole  life  through  and 

4  25 


where  he  now  rests  from  his  labors.  I  imagine  you 
did  not  have  in  mind  at  all  the  last  sentence  of  that 
beautiful  speech  of  his  spoken  here  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago,  but  how  perfectly  this  occasion  seems  to 
respond  to  it :  "  Whatever  fame  great  achievements 
may  bestow,  whatever  honors  the  world  may  give,  it 
is  ever  the  most  cherished  hope  of  every  seeker  after 
fame  or  fortune  to  be  kindly  remembered  and  lovingly 
honored  on  the  spot  which  gave  him  birth." 

It  is  no  common  thing  for  the  citizens  of  a  city  like 
this,  the  commercial  capital  of  a  great  state,  to  set  up 
a  statue  in  its  streets,  and  we  are  now  to  render  some 
answer  to  the  question,  what  reason  justifies  this  hour 
and  what  is  its  real  meaning.  The  answer  was  simpler 
although  the  occasion  had  no  greater  merit  when  you 
were  putting  up  the  statue  of  Longfellow ;  and  it  was 
simpler  because  of  the  difference  in  the  nature  of  their 
work  between  a  poet  and  a  statesman.  The  states- 
man lives  in  the  field  of  practical  controversy,  the  poet 
in  the  realm  of  ideals.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  fate 
of  poets  to  be  neglected  in  their  life-time  and  to  have 
their  birthdays  celebrated  in  after  generations.  But 
the  statesman  is  f^ted  in  his  life  and  too  commonly  for- 
gotten when  he  is  dead.  It  is  not  difficult,  I  think,  to 
find  the  reason  for  this  difference.  The  poet,  if  he 
be  a  real  one  as  yours  was,  deals  not  with  the  shifting 
conditions  of  the  time  but  with  what  Sainte-Beuve 
called  "the  eternal  humanity."  Time  takes  little 
from  the  sweetness  of  his  songs,  and  ages  after  he 

26 


is  gone  they  go  as  freshly  and  as  warmly  to  the  hearts 
of  men  as  when  they  first  dropped  from  his  lips.  And 
the  genuine  poet  sings  not  merely  to  other  ages,  but 
to  other  countries  than  his  own,  and  there  is  a  sim- 
plicity and  a  universality  to  his  fame.  But  the  states- 
man has  to  do  with  the  complex  machinery  of  the 
state,  never  more  complex  than  now,  and  however 
ardently  he  may  wish  to  realize  his  ideals  and  fly 
above  the  clouds,  he  may  not  get  too  far  from  the 
earth  without  coming  suddenly  too  near  it  with  the 
vast  interests  in  his  keeping,  in  the  collapse  of  a  gen- 
eral ruin.  He  deals,  too,  with  the  shifting  sands  of 
popular  opinion  instead  of  with  the  "  eternal  human- 
ity," and  the  absorbing  issues  of  to-day  are  thrust 
aside  by  the  aggressive  issues  of  to-morrow  and  are 
forgotten.  Much  of  his  work  is  blended  into  the 
general  aggregate  of  social  achievement  and  does  not 
stand  visibly  by  itself.  His  fame  is  less  universal 
since  the  barriers  of  patriotism  often  hedge  it  in. 
But  yet  he  richly  earns  the  gratitude  of  his  time  and 
of  posterity  if  he  does  his  duty  well,  for  the  state  is  an 
indispensable  instrument  of  civilization,  making  it 
possible  for  men  to  thrive,  for  cities  to  spring  up,  for 
poets  to  sing  and  indeed  for  society  to  exist.  And  so 
you  honor  to-day  one  who  deserved  the  name  of 
statesman  in  the  noblest  meaning  it  can  have  with  us, 
since  it  is  men  like  him  who  keep  the  idea  of  repre- 
sentative government  from  dying  out.  He  was  not 
lacking  in  the  practical  touch  demanded  by  the  nature 

27 


of  his  work,  and  yet  practical  as  his  work  was  we  shall 
see  how  finely  and  firmly  he  lived  up  to  his  ideals. 

In  order  the  better  to  understand  what  manner  of 
man  he  was,  let  us  consider  the  character  of  the  stock 
from  which  he  sprung.  For  two  centuries  before  he 
was  born,  his  ancestors  in  nearly  every  line  dwelt 
along  the  seacoast  now  included  in  Maine.  It  was 
not  one  of  the  great  settlements  which  George  Cleve, 
himself  an  ancestor  of  Reed,  planted  on  the  shores  of 
Casco  Bay,  but  no  other  settlement  in  America  can 
claim  a  more  stirring  and  dramatic  history.  Cleve 
was  as  masterful  a  man  as  ever  led  out  a  colony  to 
found  a  new  empire.  He  was  an  independent  in  re- 
ligion, but  his  little  settlement  was  not  entirely  made 
up  of  those  who  believed  in  his  own  creed.  The  Roy- 
alist, free-living  element  among  them  occasionally  be- 
came conspicuous  and  gave  themselves  some  of  the 
pleasures  of  life,  although  it  is  not  easy-  to  imagine  a 
narrower  range  of  gayety  than  that  spread  before 
them.  After  a  little  time,  Massachusetts  asserted  its 
title  to  this  coast  and  with  the  aid  of  the  whipping- 
post and  the  ducking  stool  planted  a  civilization  here 
upon  the  most  austere  Puritan  models.  The  Cleve 
settlement  was  upon  a  dangerous  frontier,  with  the 
Indian  and  Frenchman  to  the  north.  More  than 
once  during  its  first  century  it  was  all  but  obliterated 
in  Indian  wars.  Portland  was  depopulated  and  re- 
mained a  waste  place  for  a  generation.  The  original 
settlement  was  almost  purely  of  the  Germanic  or 

28 


Anglo-Saxon  stock,  Puritan  chiefly,  though  with  a 
touch  of  what  was  called  the  Cavalier,  and  it  was  aug- 
mented by  additions  from  the  Massachusetts  Puritan 
and  Pilgrim  and  later  by  an  infusion  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  and  the  Huguenot  bloods.  But  it  remained  de- 
cidedly Anglo-Saxon.  Two  centuries  after  it  had 
been  planted  it  is  doubtful  whether  a  population  more 
purely  of  the  English  blood  could  have  been  found 
anywhere,  either  in  the  old  country  or  in  the  new.  It 
was  thus  of  the  great  imperial  race  of  the  world.  From 
one  motive  or  another,  that  race  has  spread  from  its 
little  island  nest  into  the  empty  lands  over  all  the  habit- 
able globe,  carrying  with  it  a  genius  for  self-government 
and  planting  everywhere  free  commonwealths.  Its 
instinct  for  government  is  so  persistent  that  even 
when  it  has  emptied  the  jails  of  London  and  sent 
forth  penal  colonies,  it  has  after  a  time,  like  flowing 
water,  worked  itself  pure  and  exhibited  again  the  spirit 
of  orderly  government.  Sidney  Smith  was  not  simply 
employing  the  touch  of  the  satirist  when  he  predicted 
that  the  time  might  come  when  some  Botany  Bay 
Tacitus  would  record  the  crimes  and  splendors  of 
an  emperor  lineally  descended  from  a  London  pick- 
pocket. 

The  men  who  founded  the  state  of  Maine  were  the 
choicest  specimens  of  the  English  race.  They  were 
willing  to  face  the  perils  of  the  ocean,  at  that  time 
terrible  in  reality  and  more  terrible  still  to  the  imag- 
ination, to  brave  a  rigorous  climate,  to  strive  to  wring 

29 


a  living  from  an  infertile  soil  and  from  the  sea  and  to 
wage  long  wars  against  the  red  man  in  order  that  they 
might  enjoy  civil  and  religious  liberty.  While  the 
original  purity  of  the  stock  has  been  unimpaired,  the 
psychologists  of  the  nation  tell  us  that  a  new  race 
practically  has  been  evolved  from  this  intense  struggle 
and  this  new  environment,  with  strong  new  qualities 
grafted  upon  the  old. 

Reed's  first  ancestor  of  his  name  in  this  country 
apparently  came  to  Salem,  Massachusetts,  about  1630, 
and  the  son  of  this  ancestor  found  his  way  to  Maine. 
Reed  never  concerned  himself  much  about  his  remote 
pedigree.  He  accepted  himself  as  he  was  without  a 
wish  to  invoke  in  his  behalf  the  merit  of  ancestors, 
content  to  know  the  general  character  of  his  stock. 
He  once  proposed  a  toast  to  Maine:  settled,  as  he 
said,  "  chiefly  by  the  blood  of  old  England,  but  al- 
ways preferring  liberty  to  ancestry."  His  ancestors, 
he  once  remarked,  never  held  any  position  of  great 
emolument,  judging  by  his  own  financial  condition 
when  he  arrived.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however, 
of  the  excellence  of  the  individual  lines  blended  in 
him,  containing  as  they  did  the  George  Cleve  and  the 
Massachusetts  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  strains.  Some  of 
his  ancestors  were  captured  or  killed  in  the  Indian 
wars,  and  another  was  with  Paul  Jones  when  he  cap- 
tured the  Serapis.  His  own  father  was  a  sea-captain 
commanding  sailing-vessels  in  the  coasting  trade,  a 
calling  which  required  authority  and  courage. 

3° 


Reed  was  very  fortunate  in  his  education.  In  his 
later  years,  he  declared  that  he  had  long  thought  it 
the  greatest  good  fortune  of  his  life  that  he  had  spent 
five  and  one-half  years  under  Master  Lyford,  a  famous 
teacher  of  the  Portland  Boys'  High  School.  After  a 
thorough  preparation,  he  entered  Bowdoin  College  at 
the  age  of  sixteen.  The  modern  college  had  not  then 
come  into  existence,  and  Bowdoin  offered  a  course 
containing  much  Latin,  Greek  and  mathematics,  with 
few  or  no  elective  studies,  and  gave  the  rigid  disci- 
pline of  the  best  American  colleges  at  that  time.  It 
was  a  discipline  that  has  bred  scholars  and  poets  and 
statesmen,  teaching  them  how  to  think  and  write  and 
speak.  At  the  head  of  the  faculty  was  Leonard 
Woods,  probably  as  cultivated  and  cosmopolitan  a 
president  as  could  be  found  in  any  college  of  that 
day.  He  had  with  him  a  small  band  of  professors, 
nearly  every  one  of  whom  was  so  distinguished  as  to 
be  known  even  to  this  time  outside  the  circles  of  his 
own  college.  After  four  years  of  study  in  close  per- 
sonal contact  with  such  men,  he  was  graduated,  al- 
most the  youngest  man  in  a  class  numbering  fifty- 
five,  of  whom  he  was  the  leader  in  scholarship  in  the 
Senior  year  and  the  fifth  in  average  rank  for  the  en- 
tire course.  Aside  from  the  regular  work,  he  took 
the  prize  in  writing,  was  an  editor  of  the  college 
paper  and  was  active  in  sports  and  in  the  social  life  of 
the  college.  We  get  a  fascinating  glimpse  of  him 
and  of  his  care-free  manner  in  a  passage  in  one  of  his 

31 


letters  describing  a  long  walk  which  he  took  upon  a 
brilliant  winter  evening,  when  he  would  occasionally 
rest  by  throwing  himself  on  his  back  upon  high  snow- 
drifts and  gaze  wonderingly  upon  the  planet  Jupiter. 
Enough  is  known  of  his  college  career  to  permit  us 
to  see  his  natural  and  easy  growth  and  the  spirit  in 
which  he  strove  to  fashion  himself  in  that  bright 
morning  time, 

— "  ere  the  hot  sun  count 

His  dewy  rosary  on  the  Eglantine." 

Those  were  four  happy  and  fruitful  years  which  he 
passed  going  in  and  out  beneath  the  Brunswick  elms, 
and  there  were  few  college  men  of  that  time  who  might 
not  have  envied  him  his  opportunities  for  real  culture 
and  the  manner  in  which  he  improved  them.  Like 
many  another  American  boy,  he  was  forced  to  rely 
somewhat  upon  his  own  efforts  to  meet  his  college  ex- 
penses. There  is  an  ideal  touch  in  the  circumstance, 
as  if  to  prefigure  his  own  career,  that  he  was  helped 
by  another  son  of  Bowdoin  of  kindred  character  who 
has  won  honorable  place  in  the  history  of  his  country, 
William  Pitt  Fessenden.  In  the  letter  conveying 
payment  of  the  full  balance  of  the  loan  and  interest, 
young  Reed  gratefully  wrote  Fessenden :  "  I  have 
seen  enough  of  the  world  to  know  that  I  might  live 
as  long  again  without  finding  a  man  who  would  do 
such  an  act  of  kindness  in  so  kind  a  manner." 

In  taking  account  of  the  special  influences  which 

32 


helped  to  mould  his  mind  and  fit  him  for  the  work  he 
was  to  do,  we  must  not  overlook  his  service  in  the 
Civil  War  and  his  residence  in  California.  He  was 
accustomed  afterward  to  speak  lightly  of  his  career  of 
something  more  than  a  year  as  assistant-paymaster  in 
the  navy,  as  indeed  he  was  wont  to  speak  lightly  of 
anything  that  might  seem  to  increase  his  own  per- 
sonal importance.  It  was  one  of  the  precepts  which 
he  used  to  impress  with  a  touch  of  drollery  that  "  we 
make  more  progress  by  owning  our  faults  than  by 
always  dwelling  on  our  virtues."  He  might  well  have 
pointed  out  that  when  the  ship  sinks,'  the  paymaster 
is  as  likely  to  go  down  as  is  the  fighting  sailor,  but  he 
said  the  navy  meant  to  him  "  not  the  roaring  wind  and 
the  shrieking  shot  and  shell  but  smooth  water  and  the 
most  delightful  time  of  my  life."  The  Mississippi 
river  where  he  saw  the  most  of  his  service  was  at  that 
time  a  scene  of  unsurpassed  dramatic  interest  and  the 
time  spent  upon  it,  whether  in  fighting  or  not,  broad- 
ened his  experience  greatly,  just  as  his  residence  in 
California  in  the  formative  days  of  that  community 
widened  the  outlook  of  the  future  statesman. 

His  career  at  the  bar  was  admirable  in  its  training 
for  the  public  service.  It  was  of  the  sort  to  develop 
whatever  talent  he  had  for  the  law,  a  talent  that  was 
certainly  great.  In  his  first  five  years  of  practice  he 
established  himself  so  notably  that  he  was  made  the 
attorney-general  of  his  state  when  but  thirty  years  old, 
the  youngest  age  at  which  that  office  has  ever  been 

5  33 


held  in  Maine.  He  was  attorney-general  for  three 
years  during  a  time  when  the  office  dealt  with  a  great 
variety  of  litigation,  some  of  it  as  important  as  could 
engage  the  attention  of  a  lawyer.  He  filled  the  place 
with  great  success.  Then  for  four  years  he  was  coun- 
sel for  the  city  of  Portland.  Thus  after  a  dozen  busy 
years  in  which  he  maintained  himself  in  the  courts 
against  lawyers  of  eminence,  a  period  long  enough  to 
train  him  thoroughly  as  a  lawyer  and  not  so  long  as 
to  put  his  faculties  in  perpetual  slavery  to  that  call- 
ing, and  after  a  service  in  both  Houses  of  the  Maine 
legislature,  he  was  elected  to  Congress  at  the  age  of 
thirty-seven. 

The  term  of  Reed's  first  Congress  began  on  the 
day  when  General  Hayes  took  the  oath  of  office  as 
President,  an  event  which,  if  it  did  not  inaugurate  a 
new  era,  emphasized  with  a  good  deal  of  clearness  an 
important  transition  in  our  history.  It  marked  the 
end  of  state  governments  supported  by  national  bay- 
onets and  witnessed  the  restoration  in  form  at  least 
of  civil  government  throughout  the  Union.  At  the 
first  look,  the  4th  of  March,  1877,  appeared  to  usher 
in  a  time  of  political  sterility  succeeding  an  heroic 
age.  We  had  witnessed  so  many  signal  events  com- 
pressed within  a  brief  period ;  we  had  fought  among 
ourselves  the  greatest  of  wars ;  had  freed  four  million 
slaves  and  had  at  once  made  them,  so  far  as  paper 
could  do  it,  equal  self-governing  members  of  our  great 
democracy,  and  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights,  both  civil 

34 


and  political,  had  never  before  in  the  history  of  the 
world  been  practically  applied  on  so  stupendous  a 
scale.  After  these  achievements,  we  had  become 
politically  blase  and  the  ordinary  routine  of  prosper- 
ous government  was  sure  to  pall  upon  the  senses. 
We  were  attuned  to  the  spectacle  of  having  society 
abstractly  reconstituted  every  election  day  according 
to  the  most  ideal  models.  The  time  that  was  coming 
in  might  seem  humdrum  because  it  was  to  succeed  so 
impatient  a  regime  when  we  strove  to  attain  in  a  day 
an  ultimate  perfection  and  to  experience  all  the  sen- 
sations that  come  to  a  nation  in  a  very  long  life-time. 

But  important  questions  were  pressing  themselves 
forward,  not  in  a  dramatic  fashion  but  with  the  quiet 
persistency  with  which  natural  laws  compel  attention, 
serious  questions  of  governmental  honesty,  of  finance, 
of  the  standard  of  value  of  our  money,  of  taxation — 
all  vitally  involving  not  merely  the  prosperity  but  the 
honor  and  even  the  stability  of  the  nation.  President 
Hayes  courageously  grappled  with  the  new  order. 
Although  under  the  shadow  of  a  clouded  title,  he  won 
such  success  as  to  re-establish  his  party,  and  what  is  of 
far  greater  consequence,  to  deserve  the  gratitude  of 
the  oncoming  generation. 

It  was  at  the  moment  of  this  transition  that  Reed 
first  took  his  seat  in  the  House  as  a  Republican.  In 
the  general  principles  of  his  party  he  firmly  believed. 
Above  all  else  he  was  possessed  with  the  passion  for 
human  rights  which  was  the  noblest  heritage  of  the 

35 


war.  All  issues  relating  to  that  as  well  as  the  su- 
premacy of  the  central  government  within  its  sphere, 
the  war  had  settled  large  for  him.  The  House  is  a 
forum  where,  as  he  afterwards  said,  "  distinction  won 
in  other  fields  of  endeavor  will  gain  a  man  a  hearing 
for  the  first  time  but  not  afterwards."  Although  he 
had  a  brilliant  career  at  the  bar  and  as  a  member  of 
the  Maine  legislature,  he  had  established  no  reputa- 
tion of  the  sort  that  would  precede  him  to  Washing- 
ton. He  went  there  with  the  ordinary  passports  of 
the  new  member  and  his  career  was  entirely  before 
him.  With  his  ideal  equipment  for  the  work  of  the 
House,  however,  it  was  inevitable  that  he  should 
speedily  establish  himself. 

The  first  real  opportunity  came  in  his  appointment 
to  the  committee  to  investigate  charges  of  fraud  in 
connection  with  the  presidential  election.  The  man- 
ner in  which  he  performed  his  part  of  the  work 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  country.  Most  of  the 
republican  leaders  were  disqualified  from  membership 
by  the  terms  of  the  resolution  and  although  a  new 
member  Reed  was  appointed.  On  the  other  hand, 
his  political  opponents  were  the  seasoned  veterans  of 
their  party.  As  he  said  of  them,  the  household  troops 
were  ordered  up.  In  a  short  off-hand  speech  upon 
the  subject  of  the  investigation,  called  out  by  an  in- 
cautious attack  by  a  member  of  the  opposite  party,  he 
first  gave  the  House  a  touch  of  his  unique  qualities 
as  a  debater.  In  that  speech  he  displayed  to  such 

36 


advantage  his  sarcastic  humor,  his  power  of  repartee, 
and  his  force  of  argument,  that  he  took  rank  at  once 
as  the  most  formidable  debater  upon  his  side  of  the 
House. 

To  trace  minutely  his  course  during  his  service  in 
the  House  would  be  to  write  a  history  of  all  the  im- 
portant legislation  of  that  period.  I  shall  refer  only 
to  those  subjects  that  clearly  overshadowed  all  others 
in  the  contests  of  that  time.  We  now  approach  a  field 
which  has  not  yet  passed  exclusively  into  the  domain 
of  the  historian.  Some  of  the  political  questions  of 
that  day  are  still  in  issue  and  others  have  been  so  re- 
cently removed  from  politics  that  the  fires  yet  smoul- 
der near  the  surface,  compelling  one  to  walk  with  cau- 
tion. 

Upon  the  questions  relating  to  the  standard  of  our 
money,  no  clear  line  of  division  separated  the  parties. 
Members  of  each  party  were  to  be  found  upon  both 
sides.  Reed  has  expressed  the  opinion  that  a  large 
majority  of  the  American  people  favored  inflation 
during  the  administration  of  President  Hayes  and 
that  his  courageous  veto  by  arresting  attention  gave 
them  a  chance  for  reflection.  Certainly  their  repre- 
sentatives were  ready  to  pass  by  large  majorities  bills 
for  printing  more  greenbacks  and  for  coining  light- 
weight dollars.  The  wickedness  of  the  "bloated 
bond-holder "  seemed  for  the  moment  to  engage  the 
attention  of  that  class  of  orators  never  absent  in  a 

37 


democratic  government  who  seek  to  win  the  suffrages 
of  the  people  by  inflaming  them  with  a  sense  of  fancied 
wrong.  Reed's  course  from  the  outset  was  notably 
consistent.  He  stood  resolutely  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  gold  standard.  From  the  time  when  he  op- 
posed the  coinage  bill  of  1878  until  the  final  popular 
decree  in  1896,  he  was  the  most  potent  force  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  for  maintaining  gold  as  the 
standard  of  our  money.  The  device  embodied  in  the 
Sherman  law  he  was  persuaded  was  necessary  to  fore- 
stall the  passage  of  a  free  coinage  bill,  but  he  strongly 
supported  President  Cleveland's  effort  to  repeal  that 
law,  and  under  his  leadership  the  far  greater  number 
of  his  party  associates  in  the  House  voted  for  repeal. 
He  gave  the  President  unflinching  support  through- 
out the  whole  of  the  splendid  fight  which  he  made  for 
maintaining  the  integrity  of  our  money. 

As  a  constitutional  result  of  the  war,  the  black  man 
was  counted  equally  with  the  white  in  apportioning 
representatives  among  the  states,  and  the  suppression 
of  his  vote  gave  to  the  war  the  practical  result  of 
greatly  increasing  the  political  power  of  the  southern 
white  man  in  the  national  government.  Reed  stood 
by  the  position  of  his  party  in  favor  of  an  election  law 
to  enable  the  vote  of  the  colored  man  to  be  safely  cast 
and  honestly  counted  in  all  national  elections.  The 
time  was  still  hot  with  the  passions  of  the  war  and 
some  of  its  fiercest  parliamentary  contests  were  waged 
over  this  question. 

38 


The  tariff  struggle  has  been  a  perennial  one  since 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  it  was  then  par- 
ticularly raging.  Five  general  revisions  of  the  tariff 
passed  the  House  while  Reed  was  a  member  of  it, 
two  democratic  and  three  republican,  although  the  es- 
sential difference  between  them  justified  very  little  of 
the  heat  displayed  in  the  controversy.  Reed  believed 
in  encouraging  manufactures,  although  the  argument 
that  seemed  most  strongly  to  weigh  with  him  was  of  a 
social  character  and  was  based  upon  our  higher  stand- 
ard of  living,  which  required  a  higher  wage  than  in  the 
countries  with  which  the  competition  was  most  keen. 

As  a  debater  and  parliamentary  leader  he  must  be 
accorded  high  rank.  For  nearly  the  entire  period  of 
his  service,  the  parties  were  so  evenly  balanced  in  the 
country  that  no  party  could  be  said  to  be  in  control  of 
the  government.  The  House  was  usually  democratic, 
the  Senate  republican,  while  the  presidency  alternated 
between  the  two  parties.  From  1877  to  1889  all  the 
three  parts  of  the  legislative  machine  were  not  con- 
trolled  byjthe  same  party  at  any  single  time,  except 
for  a  periodjQJ,_twQ  years.  The  democratic  party,  so 
long  victorious  before  the  war,  was  again  reviving,  and 
having  control  of  the  great  popular  branch  of  the  gov- 
ernment, the  House  became  the  theater  of  the  struggle 
and  it  was  there  that  the  contest  was  most  bitterly 
waged  for  the  possession  of  the  government.  I  doubt 
if  there  has  been  another  period  of  equal  length  in  our 
history  when  the  House  was  the  scene  of  so  much  des- 

39 


perate  party  warfare,  so  much  fighting  of  the  short- 
sword  order  and  when  there  was  a  more  imperative 
call  for  the  qualities  that  fit  men  for  intellectual  com- 
bat. The  democratic  party  was  represented  in  that 
body  by  a  group  of  extremely  able  men,  comprehend- 
ing a  wide  diversity  of  talent.  In  the  combination  of 
resources  which  they  presented,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  match  them  at  any  other  time  in  the  history  of  the 
House.  It  had  parliamentary  leaders  and  debaters 
like  Carlisle,  Randall,  Crisp  and  Turner,  orators  like 
Wilson,  Cochran  and  Bryan,  and  the  list  of  its  mem- 
bers possessing  a  really  high  order  of  talent  might  be 
much  further  prolonged.  The  necessity  of  the  situa- 
tion required  the  republicans  to  keep  their  strongest 
man  at  the  front.  There  are  times  when  the  demands 
of  the  place  are  less  exacting  and  some  man  of  fairly 
respectable  talent  may  be  chosen  by  political  intrigue 
in  preference  to  a  stronger  man  and  may  successfully  \ 
go  through  the  forms  of  leadership.  But  in  this  in- 
stance the  best  was  none  too  good,  and  it  is  no  dispar-  j 
agement  of  the  republican  membership  to  say  that 
when  Reed  became  its  leader  he  was  so  pre-eminently 
the  man  for  the  place  as  to  stand  in  a  class  by  himself ; 
and  from  that  time  until  he  left  the  House  sixteen  years 
later,  he  remained  at  the  head  of  his  party,  the  longest 
period  that  any  man  has  been  the  leader  of  a  party  in 
either  the  Senate  or  the  House.  Men  have  been  suc- 
cessful at  the  head  of  an  opposition  who  have  failed 
in  attempting  to  lead  a  victorious  party.  Others  have; 


lacked  in  the  fertility  of  resource  necessary  to  attack 
who  yet  with  a  majority  about  them  could  stubbornly 
conduct  a  defensive  battle.  But  Reed  had  the  well- 
rounded  qualities  that  made  him  equally  successful 
both  as  minority  and  majority  leader.  He  is  however 
more  interesting  as  minority  leader,  because  in  the 
evolution  of  our  political  institutions  it  became  the 
custom  to  make  the  leader  of  the  majority  in  the 
House  the  Speaker,  and  the  limitations  of  that  office 
were  not  so  well  adapted  to  his  temperament  as  was 
the  freedom  of  the  floor.  For  ten  years  he  led  the 
minority,  sometimes  with  a  force  at  his  back  nearly 
equal  to  that  of  his  antagonists  and  sometimes  with  a 
little  band  behind  him  outnumbered  three  to  one.  It 
is  the  simple  truth  to  say  that  great  and  varied  as  was 
the  array  of  talent  against  him,  he  never  was  over- 
matched and  he  never  appeared  to  have  all  his  re- 
serves brought  into  action. 

*»  •  Let  us  take  some  account  of  his  equipment.  His 
appearance  was  most  impressive.  Giant  as  he  was  in 
stature  he  looked  every  inch  a  leader.  His  very  look 
fixed  the  attention  of  the  House.  He  was  slow  and 
distinct  in  enunciation,  with  a  powerful  and  strident 
voice  capable  of  cutting  through  the  confusion  and 
penetrating  to  the  farthest  recesses  of  the  enormous 
hall.  He  always  used  the  lower  tones  of  his  voice, 
some  of  which  were  of  great  sweetness.  He  spoke 
without  visible  effort,  rarely  making  a  gesture,  and  a 
fine,  strong  light  shone  from  his  brilliant  eyes,  al- 

6 


though  in  moments  of  great  excitement  they  blazed 
with  a  consuming  fire. 

His  mind  was  a  fit  companion  to  his  body.  He 
had  a  remarkable  power  of  statement,  and  when  he 
was  dealing  with  his  opponent's  case,  instead  of  stat- 
ing it  first  and  then  overthrowing  it,  he  would  often 
demolish  it  in  the  statement  itself.  "  What  the  House 
likes  best,"  he  once  said,  "  is  plain  statement,  hard- 
hitting and  sense  enough  to  know  when  one  is  done." 
He  was  able  to  seize  unerringly  upon  the  vital  point 
in  a  controversy  and  he  would  not  concern  himself 
over  the  little  issues.  He  had  the  good  taste  to  speak 
simply.  He  saw  things  clearly,  could  express  his  exact 
meaning  in  admirably  chosen  words  and  his  sentences 
were  without  a  blemish  from  the  stand-point  of  form. 
As  to  the  commonplace  shifts  of  the  orator,  the  bal- 
anced periods  and  the  worked-up  passages,  he  never 
patronized  them. 

But  his  pre-eminent  quality  was  his  humor,  a  qual- 
ity until  recent  times  very  little  used  in  public  speak- 
ing, judging  from  the  examples  that  have  come  down 
to  us.  Prior  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
oratory  with  us  seems  to  have  been  a  desperately  seri- 
ous calling.  One  would  no  more  look  for  a  joke  in 
one  of  the  approved  speeches  of  that  time  than  in  a 
demonstration  of  Euclid.  And  some  real  humor 
would  certainly  mitigate  their  reading  very  much. 
Even  that  prince  of  orators,  Daniel  Webster,  would 
be  more  widely  read  if  he  had  not  so  sternly  restrained 


the  sense  of  humor  which  he  undoubtedly  possessed. 
Reed's  humor  often  showed  the  finish  and  perfection  of 
the  finest  wit,  but  there  were  no  small  barbed  arrows 
in  his  quiver.  It  was  rather  like  the  body  of  his  argu- 
ment, the  play  of  heavy  artillery,  and  it  could  as  effect- 
ively sweep  the  field. 

His  willingness  to  accept  battle  was  superb.  What 
was  said  of  a  famous  debater  in  the  British  Par- 
liament could  truthfully  be  said  of  him :  "  He  went 
out  in  all  weathers";  but  the  weather  that  de- 
lighted him  most  was  the  storm ;  and  no  weather 
seemed  so  rough  as  to  disturb  his  coolness  and  self- 
control.  His  speeches  will  usually  be  found  in  the 
Record  just  as  he  delivered  them.  He  did  not  emu- 
late some  of  the  great  orators  of  former  times,  not  to 
mention  our  own,  and  struggle  with  an  occasion  after 
it  had  passed  by.  He  had  not  the  habit  of  withhold- 
ing his  speeches  for  revision,  to  clothe  them  with  a 
rhetoric  which  he  would  have  spoken,  but  they  were 
printed  the  next  morning  as  they  had  been  delivered. 

He  never  wasted  words.  '*  Speech,"  he  once  said, 
"  dies  upon  the  empty  air.  Better  a  pound  of  fact 
than  a  shipload  of  language."  During  his  service  in 
the  House  it  is  doubtful  if  he  made  a  half  dozen 
speeches  as  long  as  a  half  hour,  and  the  length  of  the 
greater  number  of  them  would  not  exceed  five  minutes. 
Those  short  speeches  light  up  the  Record  and  are 
models  of  their  kind,  making  the  situation  clear  and 
bringing  the  House  to  a  sense  of  what  it  was  doing. 


On  two  occasions  only  did  his  speeches  approach  two 
hours  in  length,  one  being  the  closing  argument  for 
his  side  against  the  Mills  tariff  bill,  and  the  other,  the 
closing  argument  against  the  Wilson  bill.  Each 
occasion  was  the  culmination  of  a  long  and  bitter 
party  controversy.  The  Mills  bill  embodied  the  cen- 
tral policy  upon  which  Cleveland's  campaign  for  re- 
election in  1888  was  to  be  waged.  The  tariff  was 
much  discussed  in  those  days,  and  in  three  successive 
presidential  elections  it  was  the  overshadowing  issue. 
It  rilled  the  mouths  of  our  statesmen  with  large 
figures  and  their  contributions  to  the  "  dismal  science  " 
were  usually  in  keeping  with  its  name.  An  ancient 
tariff  speech,  of  all  speeches  in  the  world,  is  not  apt  to 
be  the  most  entertaining  reading,  but  Reed's  speech 
on  the  Mills  bill  is  worth  reading  even  to-day.  There 
are  indeed  few  Congressional  speeches  of  equal  length 
that  will  bear  reading  so  well.  It  has  none  of  the 
wooden  qualities  of  the  spoken  essay,  no  particle  of 
the  ornate  fustian  which  so  often  made  the  preten- 
tious speech  of  the  last  century  such  a  thing  of  terror, 
but  it  is  a  fighting  speech,  glowing  from  beginning  to 
end,  full  of  irony,  argument,  wit  and  eloquence,  and 
was  equally  effective  at  the  moment  and  when  read 
later  in  the  campaign  it  was  chiefly  meant  to  influ- 
ence. 

The  debate  upon  the  Wilson  bill  took  place  at  the 
climax  of  the  tariff  agitation.  It  was  the  dramatic 
moment  of  a  political  battle  running  through  all  of 


Cleveland's  contests  for  the  presidency.  In  the  first 
he  was  elected,  in  the  next  defeated,  and  at  last  again 
victorious,  and  for  the  first  time  supported  by  both 
Houses  of  his  own  political  faith,  he  was  at  the  head 
of  a  party  responsible  for  the  passage  of  a  tariff  bill, 
and  one  was  about  to  be  enacted  which  pleased  nobody 
and  which  he  himself  refused  to  sign.  The  closing  of 
the  debate  in  the  House  presented  a  memorable  spec- 
tacle, fitly  marking  the  culmination  of  this  long  politi- 
cal struggle.  The  Capitol  could  scarcely  contain  the 
throng,  and  the  great  chamber  and  its  galleries  were 
crowded  to  suffocation.  Although  the  speech  of  Reed 
on  that  day  began  with  the  statement  that  "  if  anything 
seems  to  have  been  discussed  until  human  nature  can 
bear  it  no  more,  it  is  the  tariff,"  both  in  its  immediate 
effect  and  as  it  is  read  in  the  Record,  it  was  worthy  of 
a  great  occasion  and  measures  up  to  the  best  standards 
of  parliamentary  eloquence. 

I  believe  that  he  has  not  been  excelled  as  a  debater 
by  any  man  ever  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
There  have  been  orators  who  have  given  more  atten- 
tion to  rhetorical  finish,  but  no  man  has  surpassed 
him  in  the  history  of  the  House,  certainly  for  three- 
quarters  of  a  century,  in  power  of  condensed  state- 
ment, in  a  destructive  ridicule  and  in  the  stately  and 
even  flow  of  his  speech,  massive  and  strong.  He  ap- 
peared to  the  best  advantage  in  his  short  speeches. 
That  is  not  true  of  some  of  the  other  great  parliamen- 
tary speakers.  Take  then  either  of  his  two  longest 


efforts  in  the  House,  to  which  I  have  just  been  refer- 
ring, that  on  tbe  Wilson  bill  or  that  on  the  Mills  bill. 
Read  it  by  the  side  of  any  other  debating  speech  you 
may  select,  either  from  the  House  of  Commons  or  the 
House  of  Representatives,  taking,  however,  a  speech 
of  the  modern  era,  when  short-hand  reporting  had 
been  developed,  that  you  may  know  you  are  reading 
a  real  speech  and  not  an  imaginary  oration  with  the 
fine  outbursts  and  beautiful  periods,  the  careful  result 
of  after-preparation.  I  believe  that  Reed  will  stand 
the  test  so  far  as  the  reading  is  concerned.  Then  if 
you  wish  to  imagine  the  immediate  effect,  remember 
that  his  delivery  exactly  fitted  what  he  said,  and  that 
in  action  he  looked  the  twenty  thousand  ton  battle- 
ship with  all  its  range  of  armament,  its  great  and  little 
guns  in  full  play,  and  that  with  his  variety  and  force 
of  attack,  he  seemed  at  the  time  invincible. 

Reed  as  minority  leader  dealing  with  the  rules  was 
always  engaging  the  other  side  and  putting  its  leaders 
to  the  necessity  of  using  all  their  wits.  No  man  ever 
had  a  better  command  of  the  procedure  of  the  House. 
He  played  the  parliamentary  game  hard  but  played  it 
according  to  the  rules  and  he  never  sought  to  embark 
the  House  upon  revolution. 

While  as  minority  leader  he  was  opposed  to  legisla- 
tive anarchy,  as  leader  of  the  majority,  he  stood 
equally  against  legislative  impotency.  More  conspic- 
uously than  with  any  other  thing  his  name  is  identified 
with  the  overthrow  of  a  system  which  enabled  a 


minority,  by  refusing  to  vote,  to  produce  a  legislative 
paralysis  and  for  negative  purposes  to  control  the  ac- 
tion of  the  House.  Speaker  for  six  years,  under  the 
long-established  practice  of  the  House  he  was  there- 
fore its  leader.  He  stated  with  exactness  the  character 
of  the  speakership  when  he  was  first  chosen.  In  a 
speech,  none  the  less  admirable  because  in  point  of 
brevity  it  was  at  the  time  probably  without  parallel 
upon  a  like  occasion,  he  said  that  under  our  system 
as  developed  the  duties  of  his  office  were  both  politi- 
cal and  parliamentary.  "  So  far  as  the  duties  are 
political,  I  sincerely  hope  that  they  may  be  performed 
with  a  proper  sense  of  what  is  due  to  the  people  of 
this  whole  country.  So  far  as  they  are  parliamentary, 
I  hope  with  equal  sincerity  that  they  may  be  performed 
with  a  proper  sense  of  what  is  due  to  both  sides  of  this 
Chamber." 

Our  speakership  undeniably  possesses  this  dual 
character  and  the  question  is  often  asked  why  it 
should  have  taken  on  the  political  aspect,  when  the 
Speaker  of  the  British  House  of  Commons  is  in  effect 
a  judicial  officer.  The  chief  reason  may  be  found  in 
the  difference  between  our  parliamentary  systems.  In 
England  there  is  an  intermingling  of  the  executive 
and  legislative  functions.  All  the  ministers  of  the 
Crown  are  members  of  the  one  legislative  Chamber 
or  the  other.  The  leading  minister  in  the  House  of 
Commons  is  the  leader  of  that  body.  He  and  his  col- 
leagues in  office  direct  its  affairs  and  conduct  the 


government  under  their  responsibility  to  the  Com- 
mons. When  they  fail  to  command  a  majority  they 
go  out  of  office.  But  we  have  no  cabinet  system. 
We  do  indeed  have  what  is  called  a  cabinet,  but  its 
members  are  purely  executive  subordinates  of  the 
President,  a  species  of  magnificent  head  clerks,  and 
are  entirely  lacking  in  parliamentary  functions.  The 
constitution  contemplated  separate  departments,  with 
Congress  in  a  region  by  itself  passing  laws,  and  the 
President  in  his  own  secluded  domain  executing  them, 
with  an  occasional  formal  message  "  on  the  state  of  the 
Union."  But  no  great  government  can  be  effectively 
run  with  the  two  branches  of  its  central  political  de- 
partment only  upon  formal  speaking  terms,  with  the 
President  sending  coldly  constitutional  and  polite 
notes  to  Congress  and  the  latter  in  its  own  good  time 
replying  or  not  as  it  should  see  fit  to  do.  To  insure 
that  harmony  which  is  essential  in  the  workings  of  all 
the  parts  of  such  a  vast  and  complex  governmental 
machine,  there  must  be  practical  ways  of  reaching  an 
intimate  understanding.  Through  a  process  of  evolu- 
tion the  speakership  had  come  to  be  an  important 
instrument  in  supplying  the  apparent  gap  left  by  the 
constitution  between  the  executive  and  legislative 
departments  and  to  put  them  upon  more  workable 
terms.  It  presented  the  advantages  of  a  centralized 
leadership  representing  in  the  first  instance  the  pop- 
ular branch  of  the  legislature  and  tended  to  secure  a 
measure  of  the  unity  in  government  secured  by  the 

48 


Cabinet  system.  And  as  a  balance  to  the  President, 
such  a  commanding  figure  on  Capitol  hill,  always  re- 
sponsible to  the  House  and  subject  to  being  overruled 
by  it,  has  operated  as  a  check  upon  the  obvious  ten- 
dency to  autocracy  incident  to  the  growth  of  the 
government  and  the  centralization  of  power  at  Wash- 
ington. 

The  central  and  dramatic  event  in  Reed's  speaker- 
ship  was  the  counting  of  the  quorum.  The  large 
number  of  the  quorum  required  in  the  House,  eight- 
fold larger  than  that  of  the  British  House  of  Commons 
when  the  difference  in  the  number  of  members  is  taken 
into  account,  makes  it  difficult  for  the  party  in  control 
to  maintain  a  quorum  out  of  its  own  membership  unless 
its  majority  is  very  large.  It  had  for  many  years  been 
the  settled  practice  for  the  minority  to  attempt  to  de- 
feat legislation  to  which  they  were  opposed  by  ab- 
staining from  voting,  when  they  could  not  accomplish 
the  same  result  by  directly  voting  against  it.  Thus 
the  majority  had  frequently  been  compelled  to  abandon 
legislation.  The  majority  of  the  House  might  actually 
be  present  but  the  method  of  determining  its  presence 
had  been  by  the  vote  and  if  a  majority  had  not  voted 
upon  the  roll  call  business  could  not  proceed.  In 
Reed's  first  speakership  his  party  had  a  very  small  ma- 
jority. After  a  roll  call  upon  a  party  question  when 
less  than  a  quorum  of  members  had  responded  to  their 
names,  although  many  more  were  present,  he  directed 
the  clerk  to  note  the  presence  of  those  who  were  pres- 

7  (49) 


ent  but  had  not  voted.  Thus  a  quorum  was  made  up 
and  the  vote  was  announced  in  favor  of  the  proposi- 
tion which  had  received  a  majority  of  those  who  had 
seen  fit  to  vote.  His  reasons  were  simple,  and  they 
were  unanswerable  from  the  constitutional  standpoint. 
If  members  could  be  present  and  refuse  to  exercise 
their  function,  "  the  provision  of  the  constitution  giv- 
ing the  House  power  to  compel  attendance  of  absent 
members  would  seem  to  be  entirely  nugatory.  Inas- 
much as  the  constitution  only  provided  for  their  at- 
tendance, that  attendance  was  enough."  This  ruling 
was  followed  by  a  parliamentary  storm  unprecedented 
in  severity  in  the  history  of  the  House.  For  many 
hours  it  was  not  possible  to  proceed  with  the  ordinary 
business  on  account  of  the  uproar.  Members  rushed 
down  the  aisles,  filled  the  area  in  front  of  the  Speaker 
and  denounced  him  with  great  violence  of  language 
as  a  tyrant  and  a  czar.  He  held  himself  calm  and  un- 
moved amid  the  tumult,  sustained  by  the  conscious- 
ness that  he  was  right  and  that  he  was  announcing  a 
procedure  which  the  constitution  contemplated  and 
the  growing  demands  of  the  country's  business  made 
absolutely  necessary. 

The  Supreme  Court  subsequently  upheld  the  con- 
stitutionality of  Reed's  ruling  but  his  triumph  was  to 
be  even  more  complete.  His  opponents  were  formally 
to  sanction  it.  In  a  later  Congress,  when  he  led  the 
minority  and  the  party  in  control  had  returned  to  the 
ancient  practice,  he  attacked  it  with  every  resource 


known  to  parliamentary  law  and  succeeded  in  demon- 
strating its  unsoundness.  His  antagonists,  although 
they  had  a  large  majority,  were  unable  to  furnish  a 
quorum  from  their  own  ranks.  Reed's  party  under 
his  lead  refrained  from  voting,  and  thus  for  weeks  the 
transaction  of  business  was  made  impossible.  And 
the  men  who  had  vehemently  denounced  him  were 
compelled  at  last  to  adopt  the  principle  of  his  ruling 
and  affirm  the  practice  that  if  a  quorum  is  actually 
present,  the  House  can  transact  business  whether 
members  vote  or  not.  That  has  ever  since  been  the 
law  of  the  House. 

It  required  courage  of  the  highest  order  to  overturn 
the  precedents  of  a  century  made  by  all  parties,  and 
previously  assented  to  by  himself,  and  to  establish  a 
principle  so  correct  and  in  accordance  with  common 
sense.  But  he  was  not  disturbed  upon  the  question 
of  consistency.  His  dictum  upon  the  subject  proves 
that.  "  I  do  not  promise,"  he  said,  '*  to  give  wisdom 
of  adamant.  I  will  give  them  honestly  what  my  opin- 
ion is  at  the  time ;  they  must  take  the  chances  of  its 
being  for  eternity." 

It  has  required  a  man  of  unusual  quality  to  direct 
our  great  popular  assembly  in  the  days  since  the  Civil 
War  when  the  business  of  the  government  has  grown 
so  enormously,  when  the  pressure  from  private  inter- 
ests has  vastly  increased  and  when  partisanship  has 
usually  run  so  high.  It  is  no  light  task  to  moderate 
that  great  turbulent  body  and  to  maintain  orderly  pro- 

© 


cedure.  As  Speaker,  Reed  fitly  embodied  the  dignity 
of  the  House  and  it  never  had  a  presiding  officer  who 
more  inflexibly  and  fairly  administered  its  rules. 

No  greater  Speaker  ever  presided  over  the  House. 
Henry  Clay,  who  directed  not  merely  the  affairs  of 
the  House  but  to  a  large  extent  of  the  country  during 
his  speakership,  was  constantly  taking  the  floor.  He 
made  a  dozen  or  more  speeches  at  a  single  session.  I 
am  not  aware  that  during  his  whole  speakership,  Reed 
took  the  floor  either  in  the  House  or  in  Committee  of 
of  the  Whole.  He  held  himself  austerely  in  reserve. 
His  rulings  were  models  of  just  expression  and  pos- 
sessed a  weight  and  condensed  power  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  match.  He  had  the  courage  calmly  to  rise  to 
great  occasions  and  with  a  heroism  only  equalled  by 
his  insight  he  established  the  greatest  land-mark  in 
the  parliamentary  law  of  the  House. 

Just  at  the  end  of  his  public  career,  a  new  set  of 
issues  were  coming  forward.  He  was  opposed  to  the 
annexation  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  firmly  believing 
that  it  was  for  the  interest  of  the  republic  to  remain  a 
continental  power  and  that  it  would  contribute  most 
effectively  to  the  cause  of  good  government  through- 
out the  world  by  furnishing  the  example  of  a  well- 
governed  democratic  state  and  by  scrupulous  respect 
for  the  rights  of  weaker  peoples.  He  was  equally  op- 
posed to  the  Spanish  War  and  used  the  power  of  his 
office,  so  far  as  he  properly  could,  to  prevent  both  the 
annexation  and  the  war.  That  power  was  great,  but 

52 


no  man  knew  better  than  he  that  the  Speaker  was  far 
from  omnipotent,  that  he  could  only  lead  where  the 
House  was  willing  to  follow,  and  his  efforts  were  un- 
availing. The  war  was  begun  for  the  avowed  purpose 
of  putting  an  end  to  a  condition  in  the  western  hemis- 
phere which  was  within  our  traditional  sphere  of  ac- 
tion, but  the  important  question  it  bequeathed  to  us 
was  whether  we  should  become  an  Asiatic  power  and 
take  upon  ourselves  the  government  of  populations 
almost  under  the  equator  in  the  seas  of  the  Orient. 
Reed's  political  education,  the  practice  of  his  whole 
life  and  his  view  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
American  commonwealth  made  his  position  upon 
this  question  inevitable.  Long  before  the  Philip- 
pines appeared  upon  our  horizon,  he  declared  in  a 
speech  in  the  House,  "  that  the  best  government  of 
which  a  people  is  capable  is  a  government  which 
they  establish  for  themselves.  With  all  its  imperfec- 
tions, with  all  its  short-comings,  it  is  always  better 
adapted  to  them  than  any  other  government,  even 
though  invented  by  wiser  men."  The  idea  that 
America  should  violate  its  traditional  principle  of  self- 
government  and  enter  upon  the  work  of  governing 
subject  states,  he  hated  with  all  the  fierce  hatred  of  a 
vanishing  time.  It  seemed  to  him  like  abandoning 
the  principle  which  made  her  unique  among  the 
nations.  He  was  profoundly  stirred  by  our  taking 
on  "  the  last  colonial  curse  of  Spain,"  but  it  had  been 
done  by  a  treaty  solemnly  ratified  by  the  Senate,  and 


he  had  come  to  the  parting  of  the  ways.  His  re-elec- 
tion to  the  speakership  appeared  certain,  and  that 
office,  he  once  declared  had  but  one  superior  and  no 
peer.  His  mind  had  been  never  so  ripe.  But  he  was 
heartsore  at  the  prospect  of  following  the  new  and 
opposite  line  and  he  determined  to  retire  to  private 
life.  To  his  near  friend,  Asher  Hinds,  he  said,  "  I 
have  tried  perhaps  not  always  successfully  to  make 
the  acts  of  my  public  life  accord  with  my  conscience 
and  I  cannot  now  do  this  thing."  And  so  he  wrote 
his  touching  farewell  letter  to  his  constituents  and 
withdrew  from  the  public  service. 

One  would  fail  to  do  justice  to  Reed  if  he  did  not 
speak  of  his  brilliancy  and  charm  in  conversation. 
His  wise,  bantering  and  witty  talk  was  the  life  of  any 
social  group  in  which  he  happened  to  be  placed. 
There  was  no  arrogance  in  his  manner,  he  never  took 
possession  of  any  company,  as  social  autocrats  are  apt 
to  do,  but  none  the  less  he  was  by  common  consent  sure 
to  take  the  lead.  His  sententious  witticisms  became 
the  talk  of  the  town  and  were  repeated  from  mouth  to 
mouth.  It  is  unfortunate  that  there  was  not  some 
Boswell  to  take  down  his  conversation  and  that  so 
many  of  his  brilliant  sayings  have  perished.  His  wit 
was  ingrained  in  the  substance  of  his  style  and  was 
shown  alike  in  conversation  and  in  off-hand  speaking. 
He  often  united  with  it  a  homely  common  sense  phi- 
losophy strongly  resembling  that  of  Dr.  Franklin  and 
a  way  of  putting  it  that  reminds  one  of  Sidney  Smith. 


In  attempting  to  quote  from  him,  it  is  equally  difficult 
to  know  where  to  begin  and  where  to  stop,  and  after 
one  is  done  he  feels  sure  there  are  better  specimens 
left.  But  I  will  venture  a  few  short  examples  which 
may  show  something  of  the  touch  of  his  wit  and  phi- 
losophy. 

Bantering  a  House  of  the  opposite  party  for  doing 
nothing  but  talk,  he  said :  "  It  presents  the  dead  level 
of  a  Dutch  landscape  with  all  its  wind-mills  but  with- 
out a  trace  of  its  beauty  and  fertility." 

Of  his  own  minority,  he  said :  "  They  behaved  with 
gentleness  and  modesty,  partly  because  they  were  very 
good  men  and  partly  because  there  were  very  few  of 
them." 

And  again  of  a  member  who  was  a  skillful  lawyer, 
he  said :  "  There  is  no  man  in  five  kingdoms  abler  to 
dig  a  pit  for  a  witness  and  sweetly  coax  him  into  it." 

Complimenting  the  honesty  of  an  opponent  to  whom 
he  was  replying,  he  added :  "  Such  is  the  direct  nature 
of  his  mind  that  there  is  no  man  so  capable  of  thor- 
oughly exposing  the  weakness  of  a  bad  position  that 
he  happens  to  occupy." 

This  is  his  homely  version  of  "  omne  ignotum  pro 
magnifico,"  the  principle  in  human  nature  which  causes 
the  gold  brick  industry  to  flourish  in  politics  and  else- 
where :  "  Everything  we  do  not  know  anything  about 
always  looks  big.  The  human  creature  is  imagina- 
tive. If  he  sees  a  tail  disappearing  over  a  fence,  he 
images  the  whole  beast  and  usually  images  the  wrong 

55 


beast.  .  .  .  Whenever  we  take  a  trip  into  the 
realms  of  fancy,  we  see  a  good  many  things  that  never 
were." 

Speaking  of  a  panic  in  Wall  Street  which  squeezed 
the  inflation  out  of  values,  he  said :  "  Water  flowed 
down  both  sides  of  the  street." 

Sometimes  the  world  moves  slowly.  "  It  took  four 
thousand  years  of  pagan  and  fifteen  centuries  of  Chris- 
tian civilization  to  produce  a  two-pronged  fork  and 
another  century  to  bring  it  into  use." 

"  We  endure  filth  diseases  thousands  of  years  and 
call  them  visitations  from  God,  and  when  some  one 
proposes  the  remedy,  we  listen  in  early  ages  with  the 
horror  suitable  to  greet  a  man  who  wishes  to  interfere 
with  God's  methods  in  the  universe." 

"  Never  expect  toleration  from  a  crowd  that  has 
other  views  and  has  them  vividly." 

"  Wrong  is  never  so  weak  as  in  its  hour  of  tri- 
umph." 

"  The  alternation  of  good  times  and  hard  times  an- 
tedates the  pyramids." 

-  "  If  we  ever  learn  to  treat  the  living  with  the  ten- 
derness with  which  we  instinctively  treat  the  dead,  we 
shall  then  have  a  civilization  well  worth  distributing." 

"  That  is  one  of  the  laws  of  God  working  for  his 
children,  and  compared  with  one  of  your  laws  of  Con- 
gress, it  is  as  a  Leviathan  to  a  clam." 

The  description  of  the  view  from  Cushing's  Island 
across  Portland  harbor,  in  which  he  takes  you  from 


the  Portland  of  to-day  to  the  Portland  of  the  time  of 
Cleve's  landing,  will  serve  as  an  example  of  a  differ- 
ent vein,  showing  his  accuracy  as  an  observer  and  his 
skill  as  a  painter  of  a  scene.  "  The  long  slope  of 
grassy  verdure  varied  by  the  darker  foliage  of  the 
trees  spreads  wide  to  the  water's  edge.  Then  begins 
the  bright  sparkle  of  the  summer  sea,  that  many-twink- 
ling smile  of  ocean,  that  countless  laughter  of  the 
waves  which  has  lighted  up  the  heart  of  man  centu- 
ries since  Eschylus  died,  and  centuries  before  he 
lived.  Across  the  sunlit  waters,  dotted  with  the 
white  sails  or  seamed  with  the  bubbling  foam  of  the 
steamers'  track,  past  the  wharves,  bristling  with  masts 
and  noisy  with  commerce,  the  gaze  falls  upon  the 
houses  sloping  quickly  upward  in  the  center  and  be- 
coming more  and  more  embowered  in  trees  as  they 
climb  the  hills  at  either  end.  Following  the  tall  spires 
the  eye  loses  itself  in  the  bright  blue  sky  beyond. 
.  .  .  If  you  shut  your  eyes  and  let  the  lofty  spires 
disappear,  the  happy  homes  glisten  out  of  sight,  and 
the  wharves  give  place  to  a  curving  line  of  shelving, 
pebbly  beach;  if  you  imagine  the  bright  water  un- 
vexed  by  traffic,  the  tall  peninsula  covered  with 
forests  and  bushy  swamps,  with  the  same  varied  ex- 
panse of  island  and  of  sea,  and  the  whole  scene  un- 
disturbed by  any  sound  save  the  clanging  cries  of 
innumerable  birds  and  water  fowl,  you  will  be  looking 
upon  Machigonne  as  it  appeared  to  George  Cleve." 
But  beyond  his  brilliancy  as  a  debater,  his  resplen- 

f)  '    ' 


dent  wit  and  his  skill  as  a  parliamentary  leader,  his  title 
to  remembrance  rests  upon  his  quality  as  a  statesman. 
He  had  a  great  ambition,  but  it  was  not  great  enough 
to  lead  him  to  surrender  any  principle  of  government 
which  he  deemed  vital.  Like  Webster,  like  Clay  and 
others  of  our  most  conspicuous  statesmen,  he  was  dis- 
appointed at  not  reaching  the  Presidency,  but  he  could 
fitly  aspire  to  the  office  for  he  was  of  the  fibre  and 
nurture  out  of  which  great  presidents  are  made.  He 
probably  would  not  have  been  a  continuously  popular 
president,  but  our  great  presidents  never  have  been. 
He  had  that  supreme  quality  which  was  seen  in  Wash- 
ington breasting  the  popular  anti-British  feeling  and 
asserting  against  France  our  diplomatic  independence ; 
in  Lincoln  bearing  the  burden  of  unsuccessful  battles 
and  holding  back  the  sentiment  for  emancipation  until 
the  time  was  ripe  for  freedom;  in  Grant  facing  the 
popular  clamor  and  vetoing  inflation,  and  in  Cleve- 
land alienating  his  party  while  he  persisted  in  as  right- 
eous and  heroic  a  battle  as  was  ever  waged  by  a  presi- 
dent. 

A  great  nation  cannot  make  up  its  mind  in  a  mo- 
ment.    What  first  appeals  to  its  fancy  is  not  likely  to 
appeal  to  its  final  judgment,  and  the  severest  test  of  \ 
the  disinterestedness  of  the  statesman  under  our  sys-  ) 
tern  is  his  readiness  to  risk  unpopularity  and  defeat  ! 
in  order  to  protect  the  people  from  their  first  impulse 
and  give  them  an  opportunity  to  form  a  real  opinion. 
Reed's  faith  was  in  what  he  called  "  the  deliberate 


judgment  of  the  people,"  but  he  declared  that  "  the 
sudden  and  unreflecting  judgment  of  the  noisy  who 
are  first  heard  is  quite  as  often  a  voice  from  the  un- 
derworld." This  distinction  is  vital  since  the  cause 
of  democracy  has  nothing  to  hope  from  the  statesman 
who  weakly  yields  to  the  temptation  always  to  be  pop- 
ular and  who  panders  to  the  noisy  passions  of  the  mo- 
ment rather  than  consults  the  real  interests  of  the 
people.  Reed  recognized  no  divinity  in  an  unthink- 
ing clamor,  whether  raised  by  one  man  or  a  great  mass 
of  men.  The  people  could  no  more  depend  on  in- 
spiration to  guide  them  in  performing  their  public 
duties  than  in  their  private  affairs.  In  each  case,  re- 
flection and  work  were  equally  necessary.  He  showed 
his  reverence  for  representative  government  by  the 
calm  dignity  with  which  he  bore  himself  during  more 
than  two  decades  of  service.  He  was  sometimes  com- 
pelled to  struggle  to  maintain  himself  but  he  scorned 
to  make  the  struggle  upon  demagogue  lines  or  to 
swerve  from  the  straight  path  upon  which  he  moved 
with  so  much  majesty.  He  was  not  prigged  up  with 
the  commonplace  sort  of  greatness,  with  a  padded  and 
theatric  make-up  staged  to  strike  the  imaginations  of 
little  men  or  to  set  wagging  the  puffing  pens  of  little 
writers.  He  was  no  self-advertiser  and  ran  no  press 
bureaus  to  trumpet  his  real  or  imaginary  virtues.  He 
sought  no  mere  noisy  and  ephemeral  fame  but  he 
lived  upon  a  plane  visible  at  history's  perspective  and 
he  grandly  wove  his  life  into  the  texture  of  his  time. 

59 


And  so  you  rear  this  statue.  And  you  do  well  to 
rear  it  for,  although  his  memory  is  one  of  the  treas- 
ures of  the  whole  country,  it  was  you  who  gave  him 
to  the  nation.  He  was  the  product  of  the  sky  and 
soil  of  Maine,  lightened  by  her  sunshine  and  hardened 
by  her  storms.  As  a  representative  acts  well  or  ill, 
he  reflects  credit  or  discredit  upon  those  who  have 
chosen  him.  By  this  test  how  signally  he  honored 
you.  But  you  equally  honored  yourselves  when,  amid 
all  the  shifting  popular  vagaries  and  the  following  of 
false  gods,  you  permitted  yourselves  to  be  guided  by 
the  better  genius  of  popular  government  and  kept  this 
heroic  figure  for  so  long  a  time  in  the  service  of  his 
country.  And  when  he  returned  his  commission  to 
you,  he  could  truthfully  say  as  he  proudly  said :  "  No 
sail  has  been  trimmed  for  any  breeze  or  any  doubtful 
flag  ever  flown."  That  noble  phrase  gives  the  key- 
note to  his  character  as  a  statesman.  The  only  colors 
he  was  willing  to  fight  under  were  those  that  repre- 
sented his  own  principles.  He  never  sailed  just  for  the 
sake  of  sailing  but  to  make  progress  upon  a  straight 
course.  He  did  not  take  his  inspiration  and  direction 
from  the  winds  but  from  the  stars. 


Immediately  after  the  delivery  of  Judge  Symonds' 
opening  address  the  ceremony  of  unveiling  the  statue 
proceeded.  The  string  was  drawn  by  Thomas  Reed 
Balentine,  infant  grandson  of  Thomas  Brackett  Reed, 
his  mother,  Mrs.  Katharine  Reed  Balentine,  wife  of 
Captain  Arthur  T.  Balentine,  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  Ar 
tillery,  assisting  him. 

When  the  fine  statue  was  thrown  open  to  the  view 
of  the  assembled  multitude  Judge  Symonds  said: 

I  am  sure  I  repeat  the  hope  and  prayer  of  all  when 
I  say,  may  the  beautiful  boy  live  to  appreciate  better 
than  he  can  now  the  fine  part  he  has  taken  to-day  in 
the  unveiling  of  his  grandfather's  statue. 

The  sculptor  was  then  introduced  by  the  President 
of  the  Association,  saying : 

I  now  have  the  distinguished  honor  to  introduce 
to  you  the  man  of  genius,  at  whose  touch  this  noble 
statue  has  sprung  into  life,  by  whose  patient,  skillful 
hand  it  has  been  wrought  to  the  last  perfection  in  por- 
traiture and  in  art,  the  young  and  brilliant  American 
sculptor,  Mr.  Burr  C.  Miller,  of  Wilkes  Barre,  Penn- 
sylvania, resident  in  Paris,  France,  where  the  work 
has  been  executed. 

61 


The  President  of  the  Association  then  addressed 
the  Mayor  of  the  City,  and  he  replied,  as  follows : 

Mr.  Mayor:  In  the  name  and  in  behalf  of  the 
Thomas  Brackett  Reed  Memorial  Association,  by  di- 
rection of  its  Executive  Committee,  I  now  commit  to 
the  sacred  keeping  of  the  City  of  Portland,  the  city  of 
his  birth  and  of  his  ancestry,  with  which  his  great  life 
is  forever  associated,  to  which  his  name  will  always 
impart  "  charm  and  illustration,"  this  memorial  statue 
of  Thomas  Brackett  Reed. 

Mr.  President :  In  the  name  of  the  city  of  Portland 
I  accept  this  memorial  statue  of  Thomas  Brackett 
Reed,  to  be  kept  and  maintained  in  perpetual  memory 
of  him  whom  it  represents.  In  no  sense  a  burden,  this 
obligation  will  be  fulfilled  by  the  present  and  succeed- 
ing generations  with  loving  care  and  faithful  service. 

It  has  been  said,  perhaps  with  some  truth,  that  the 
citizens  of  Portland  have  failed,  in  many  cases,  to  fit- 
tingly honor  their  fellow  citizens  whose  character  and 
life  work  had  elevated  them  to  the  level  of  national 
prominence.  This  monument  to  Mr.  Reed  bears  wit- 
ness that  his  fellow  citizens  fully  appreciate  the  great 
services  he  rendered  his  country  and  the  magnificent 
manhood  of  the  man.  And  we  certainly  are  not  der- 
elict in  our  duty  when  we  raise  this  monument  of 
bronze  and  granite  in  honor  of  this  man  of  our  gener- 
ation who  stands  out  pre-eminent  as  a  leader,  to  whom 

62 


we  are  deeply  indebted  for  giving  us  in  his  own  per- 
sonality an  example  of  the  best  and  finest  type  of 
American  citizenship. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  attempt  to  review  the  story 
of  Mr.  Reed's  life,  that  has  been  ably  and  eloquently 
done  by  the  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me ;  but  I 
believe  that  history  will  signalize  him  as  one  possess- 
ing in  a  very  high  degree,  that  sure  characteristic  of 
all  truly  great  men — the  courage  of  his  convictions. 
To  him  we  can  well  apply  the  words  of  the  Latin 
poet: 

"  Not  the  wild  fury  of  his  fellow  citizens  ordering  him 
to  do  evil ; 

"  Nor  the  look  of  a  threatening  tyrant ; 

"  Nor  the  stormy  south  wind  ruling  the  unquiet  Ad- 
riatic ; 

"  Nor  the  mighty  hand  of  Jupiter  wielding  his  thunder- 
bolts ; 

"  Can  shake  in  his  settled  purpose  the  man  who  is  just 
and  steadfast  in  his  determination ; 

"  If  the  cracking  heavens  fall  they  will  strike  him  un- 
moved by  fear." 

Envy,  political  hostility,  misrepresentation  and  per- 
sonal abuse  that  all  public  men  have  to  undergo,  are 
now  buried  forever,  and  as  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun 
fall  upon  the  surface  of  a  stream,  to  gold  converting 
one  by  one  the  ripples  of  that  flowing  river,  so  we, 
filled  with  admiration  for  him,  for  what  he  was  and 

63 


what  he  stood  for,  as  we  contemplate  this  statue,  see 
from  beneath  the  bronze  appearing,  the  pure  gold  of 
his  character,  his  integrity  and  his  ability. 

At  the  close  of  the  delivery  of  the  oration  in  State 
Street  Church  the  benediction  was  pronounced  by 
Rev.  Asa  Dalton,  D.  D.,  of  Portland. 


64 


OfTICERS  AND  COMMITTEES 


THOMAS    BRACKETT    REED    MEMORIAL 
ASSOCIATION. 


PRESIDENT. 

JOSEPH  W.  SYMONDS,  Portland,  Me. 

VICE  PRESIDENTS. 

AUGUSTUS  G.  PAINE,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
GEORGE  M.  SEIDERS,  Portland,  Me. 
WINTHROP  MURRAY  CRANE,  Dalton,  Mass. 
HENRY  DEERING,  Portland,  Me. 

SECRETARY. 

FRANK  D.  MARSHALL,  Portland,  Me. 

TREASURER. 

GEORGE  W.  BEYER,  Portland,  Me. 


67 


EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

Joseph  W.  Symonds,  (Et-Officio.) 
John  C.  Small,  Augustus  G.  Paine, 

Asher  C.  Hinds,  Luther  B.  Roberts, 

George  M.  Seiders,  Henry  Deering, 

George  E.  Bird,  James  P.  Baxter. 

SPECIAL  SUB-COMMITTEE  ON  DESIGN. 

Augustus  G.  Paine,  Joseph  W.  Symonds, 

John  Carroll  Perkins,  Henry  Deering. 

COMMITTEE  ON  UNVEILING  THE  STATUE. 

Augustus  G.  Paine. 

COMMITTEE  ON  DECORATIONS,  BADGES  AND  TICKETS. 

Asher  C.  Hinds. 

RECEPTION  COMMITTEE. 

George  E.  Bird,  William  L.  Putnam, 

James  P.  Baxter,  Augustus  G.  Paine. 

68 


COMMITTEE  ON  INVITATIONS. 

George  M.  Seiders,  Franklin  C.  Payson, 

Asher  C.  Hinds,  Charles  McCarthy,  Jr., 

Seth  L.  Larrabee. 

COMMITTEE  ON  SETTING  MONUMENT. 

Henry  Deering,  Edward  C.  Jordan, 

Frank  D.  Marshall,  Frederick  O.  Conant. 

COMMITTEE  ON  ENTERTAINMENT. 

John  C.  Small,  Frederick  O.  Conant, 

Frederic  E.  Boothby,  Seth  C.  Gordon, 

Herbert  J.  Brown. 

COMMITTEE  ON  GENERAL  ARRANGEMENTS. 

Luther  B.  Roberts,  William  L.  Cobb, 

Frank  D.  Marshall,  Charles  F.  Flagg, 

George  W.  Beyer,  Herbert  Payson, 

E.  H.  Nickerson. 


69 


CONTRIBUTORS. 


Amos  L.  Allen, 
Charles  C.  Adams, 
Horace  Anderson, 
Fred  E.  Allen, 
Thomas  Asbury,  Jr., 
J.  F.  Albion, 
Fred  J.  Allen, 
Charles  H.  Adams, 
Charles  T.  Ames, 
William  F.  Aldrich, 
John  D.  Archbold, 
S.  F.  Bearce, 
William  W.  Brown, 
George  W.  Beyer, 
George  E.  Bird, 
William  M.  Bradley, 
Frederic  E.  Boothby, 
W.  H.  Brownson, 
Harry  Butler, 
Brunel-Higgins  Shoe 
F.  S.  Blanchard, 
Henry  C.  Blanchard, 
Henry  C.  Brewer, 
A.  H.  Berry  Shoe  Co. 
Herbert  J.  Brown, 
Eugene  L.  Bodge, 
F.  O.  Bailey  &  Co., 


Alfred,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


Sanford,  Me. 

Limerick,  Me. 

Westbrook,  Me. 

Aldrich,  Ala. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Woodfords,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 


Co., 
Cumberland  Center,  Me. 

u  «  u 

Freeport,  Me. 
,  Portland,  Me. 


73 


Edwin  C.  Burleigh, 
Nathaniel  A.  Brown, 
Frank  S.  Black, 
James  P.  Baxter, 
Thurston  S.  Burns, 
Joseph  F.  Bodwell, 
Cornelius  N.  Bliss, 
Thomas  A.  Buckner, 
Botany  Worsted  Mills, 
Arthur  E.  Craig, 
John  S.  Clark, 
Charles  W.  Carr, 
Lyman  M.  Cousens, 
Charles  S.  Chase, 
Grover  Cleveland, 
Elisha  W.  Conley, 
William  L.  Cobb, 
Mary  J.  E.  Clapp, 
Charles  Cook, 
George  M.  Curtis, 
Robert  G.  Cousins, 

E.  Childs, 
A.  S.  Chase, 
Edward  B.  Cook, 

F.  N.  Calderwood, 
James  Cunningham, 
George  O.  K.  Cram, 
Horatio  Clark, 

A.  F.  Cox  &  Son, 


Augusta,  Me. 

Westbrook,  Me. 

Troy,  N.  Y. 

Portland,  Me. 

Westbrook,  Me. 

Hallowell,  Me. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

u  u  u 

Passaic,  N.  J. 

Portland,  Me. 

Naples,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 


Princeton,  N.  J. 
Portland,  Me. 


u  u 


Clinton,  la. 

Tipton,  la. 

Cumberland  Center,  Me. 

«  u  u 

Portland,  Me. 


74 


Fred  O.  Conant, 

William  T.  Cobb, 

Cyrus  H.  K.  Curtis, 

Andrew  Carnegie, 

Winthrop  Murray  Crane, 

H.  W.  Cannon, 

W.  Burke  Cockran, 

J.  P.  Cobb, 

W.  N.  Caldwell 

William  N.  Cohen, 

David  S.  Cowles, 

Herbert  S.  Carpenter, 

Richard  Campion, 

Cyrus  Currier  &  Sons, 

California  Cotton  Mills  Co., 

Frank  E.  Davis, 

Asa  Dalton, 

George  F.  Duncan, 

Charles  F.  Dunlap, 

Charles  B.  Dalton, 

Guy  Davis, 

Henry  Deering, 

James  L.  Dunn, 

Dow  &  Pinkham, 

Roswell  F.  Doten, 

George  A.  Dow, 

Fred.  N.  Dow, 

W.  K.  Dana, 

W.  L.  Daggett  &  Co., 

75 


Portland,  Me. 

Rockland,  Me. 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Dalton,  Mass. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


Holyoke,  Mass. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Newark,  N.  J. 
Oakland,  Cal. 
Portland,  Me. 


Cumberland  Center,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


Westbrook,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


William  Deering, 
Thomas  Dolan, 
John  T.  Devine, 
Henry  C.  Davis, 
George  A.  Draper, 
John  Dalzell, 
Dempster  &  Place, 
Ray  P.  Eaton, 
Harry  B.  Eddy, 
Walter  C.  Emerson, 
Edward  S.  Everett, 
George  T.  Edwards, 
Eastman  Bros.  &  Bancroft, 
D.  L.  Einstein, 
Earl  &  Wilson, 
Francis  Fessenden, 
Jed.  F.  Fanning, 
M.  P.  Frank, 
George  L.  Fogg, 
Charles  S.  Fobes, 
George  C.  Frye, 
Charles  F.  Flagg, 
Mrs.  Charles  F.  Flagg, 
Mrs.  M.  C.  Farrington, 
Thomas  J.  Foster, 
Henry  W.  Foster, 
Wallace  T.  Foote,  Jr., 
William  H.  Gray, 
Goodall  Worsted  Co., 

76 


Chicago,  111. 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Washington,  D.  C. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Hopedale,  Mass. 

Pittsburg,  Pa. 

Gloversville,  N.  Y. 

Brunswick,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 


u  u 


New  York,  N.  Y. 

u  a  u 

Portland,  Me. 


Westbrook,  Me. 

u  u 

Pt.  Henry,  N.  Y. 

Portland,  Me. 

Sanford,  Me. 


Frederic  Henry  Gerrish, 
C.  W.  T.  Coding, 
Hanno  W.  Gage, 
Henry  C.  Gilson, 
Byron  Greenough  &  Co., 
J.  E.  Goold  Estate, 
Dr.  Seth  C.  Gordon, 
Richard  Guenther, 
Wm.  H.  Grundy  &  Co., 
Frank  Gilbert, 
Thomas  B.  Haskell, 
Edward  C.  Hersey, 
George  S.  Hobbs, 
Asher  C.  Hinds, 
James  C.  Hamlen, 
W.  H.  Hobbs, 
Charles  O.  Haskell, 
Charles  C.  Harmon, 
Frederick  Hale, 
Edward  Hills  Son  &  Co., 
Herbert  A.  Harmon, 
Oscar  H.  Hersey, 
Edward  A.  Hay, 
F.  H.  Hazelton, 
Charles  M.  Hay, 
Charles  Hamlin, 
John  F.  Hill, 
Oren  Hooper  Sons, 
J.  Manchester  Haynes, 

77 


Portland,  Me. 


Germany. 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Waterford,  N.  Y. 

So.  Portland,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 


New  York,  N.  Y. 
Portland,  Me. 


Bangor,  Me. 
Augusta,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 
Augusta,  Me. 


Haskell  Silk  Company,  Westbrook,  Me. 

Herbert  M.  Heath,  Augusta,  Me. 

Clarence  Hale,  Portland,  Me. 

Robert  R.  Hitt,  Mt.  Morris,  111. 

Thomas  H.  Hubbard,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

F.  C.  Huyck  &  Sons,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

William  S.  Hawk,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Darius  H.  Ingraham,  Portland,  Me. 

Milton  A.  Jewell, 
Fritz  H.  Jordan, 
E.  E.  Jordan, 

Edward  C.  Jones,  "  " 

Henry  M.  Jones,  "  " 

Mr.  &  Mrs.  Edward  C.  Jordan, 
George  F.  Judkins,  "  " 

Rufus  K.  Jordan,  Westbrook,  Me. 

Winthrop  Jordan,  Portland,  Me. 

I.  W.  Jacobson,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Jeffrey  Mfg.  Co.,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

Fred  H.  King,  Portland,  Me. 

A.  A.  Kendall, 
J.  A.  Kendall, 
Alfred  King, 
H.  A.  Kelley, 

Darwin  P.  Kingsley,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Kursheedt  Mfg.  Co., 

Charles  F.  Libby,  Portland,  Me. 

Seth  L.  Larrabee, 

Charles  E.  Littlefield,  Rockland,  Me. 

78 


R.  M.  Lewson,  Portland,  Me. 

Frank  M.  Low, 

R.  D.  Libby, 

Fred  F.  Lord, 

Harriet  A.  Libby, 

Margaret  A.  Libby, 

Ellen  H.  Libby, 

Adam  P.  Leighton, 

Isidore  W.  Leighton, 

J.  R.  Libby  Co., 

W.  W.  Lamb,  Cumberland  Mills,  Me. 

Alexander  T.  Laughlin,  Portland,  Me. 

L.  N.  Littauer,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Charles  McCarthy,  Jr.,  Portland,  Me. 

Frank  D.  Marshall, 

Maine  Alpaca  Company, 

by  Lewis  B.  Goodall,  Treas.,  Sanford,  Me. 
Louiville  H.  Merrill,  Cumberland  Center,  Me. 
Fred  W.  Mayberry,  Portland,  Me. 

Seth  M.  Milliken,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Mary  W.  Milliken,  Portland,  Me. 

Augustus  F.  Moulton,  "  " 

L.  A.  Mercier, 
Francis  T.  Miller, 
J.  W.  Magruder, 
W.  P.  Millay, 
J.  C.  Merrill, 

Edward  S.  Marshall,  York,  Me. 

Chas.  M.  Moses,  Portland,  Me, 

79 


Robert  McArthur, 
Joseph  F.  Morgan, 
Charles  A.  Moses, 
Joseph  E.  Merrill, 
George  B.  Morrill, 
John  F.  A.  Merrill, 
John  A.  McCall, 
Samuel  W.  McCall, 
Levi  P.  Morton, 
Thomas  L.  Manson, 
George  B.  McClellan, 
E.  L.  Munn, 
Samuel  Mather, 
Anson  G.  McCook, 
John  Maddock  &  Sons, 
Edward  A.  Noyes, 
New  York  Knife  Co., 
Charles  H.  Nettleton, 
George  C.  Owen, 
E.  B.  Osgood, 
J.  B.  O'Neill, 
George  T.  Oliver, 
Benjamin  B.  Odell,  Jr., 
Thomas  Oakes, 
City  of  Portland, 
Stephen  C.  Perry, 
Henry  C.  Peabody, 
Barrett  Potter, 
William  N.  Prince  &  Co., 

80 


Biddeford,  Me. 

Dubuque,  la. 

Cumberland  Mills,  Me. 

Newton,  Mass. 

Portland,  Me. 

u  u 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Winchester,  Mass. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 


Holyoke,  Mass. 
Cleveland,  Ohio. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Trenton,  N.  J. 
Portland,  Me. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Derby,  Conn. 
Portland,  Me. 
Cumberland  Center,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 
Pittsburg,  Pa. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

U  U  (( 

Portland,  Me. 


Brunswick,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


George  D.  Perkins, 

Mrs.  J.  E.  Palmer, 

Henry  B.  Pennell, 

Palmer  Shoe  Co., 

James  W.  Parker, 

Franklin  C.  Payson, 

H.  M.  Payson  &  Co., 

Paris  Flouring  Co., 

Mr.  &  Mrs.  Clarence  W.  Peabody, 


Sioux  City,  la. 
Portland,  Me. 


Leon  K.  Paine, 
William  L.  Putnam, 
Augustus  G.  Paine, 
George  W.  Perkins, 
I.  E.  Palmer, 
Charles  H.  Prescott, 
John  Carroll  Perkins, 
Susan  P.  Reed, 
William  W.  Roberts, 
John  B.  Reed, 
Luther  B.  Roberts, 
Percy  H.  Richardson, 
Edward  C.  Reynolds, 
Albert  G.  Rollins, 
H.  H.  Ricker, 
W.  W.  Rowe, 
C.  H.  Robinson, 
Charles  H.  Redlon, 
Rowell  Bros., 
George  W.  Ray, 


Cumberland  Mills,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

«  u  u 

Middletown,  Conn. 

Biddeford,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 


Cumberland  Center,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


Norwich,  N.  Y. 


81 


Trenton,  N.  J. 

Thomaston,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 

Sanford,  Me. 

Portland,  Me. 


H.  H.  Rogers,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Jordan  J.  Rollins, 

Norman  B.  Ream, 

Edmund  D.  Randolph, 

John  A.  Roeblings  Sons  Co., 

Edwin  Smith, 

H.  W.  Shaylor, 

Sanford  Mills, 

John  C.  Small, 

Joseph  W.  Symonds,  " 

George  M.  Seiders,  "  " 

Leroy  S.  Sanborn,  "  " 

Neal  D.  Smith, 

E.  P.  Staples, 

James  Hopkins  Smith,  "  " 

J.  E.  Stevens, 

Sewall  C.  Strout, 

George  C.  Shaw  Co.,  "  " 

Southworth  Bros., 

F.  R.  Sweetser,  Cumberland  Center,  Me. 
Dr.  &  Mrs.  George  B.  Swasey,        Portland,  Me. 
Hugh  A.  Sweeney,  "  " 
George  H.  Smith,                          Waterboro,  Me. 
Thomas  P.  Smith,                          Westbrook,  Me. 
Ruel  Small,                                        Portland,  Me. 
Bellamy  Storer,                            Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
George  R.  Sheldon,                     New  York,  N.  Y. 
Abraham  Seligsberg, 

F.  M.  Smith, 

82 


Levi  Turner, 
Frank  P.  Tibbetts, 
Elias  Thomas, 
Jeremiah  W.  Tabor, 
Edward  F.  Tompson, 
Talbot,  Brooks  &  Ayer, 
O.  S.  Thomes, 
Ernest  True, 
Jabez  True, 
Norman  True, 
Benjamin  Thompson, 
W.  W.  Thomas, 
Charles  H.  Trefethen, 
H.  F.  Taintor  Mfg.  Co., 
C.  A.  Van  Rensselaer, 
Harry  R.  Virgin, 
Fred  Vilmar, 
Robert  T.  Whitehouse, 
George  F.  West, 
George  H.  Weeks, 
Richard  Webb, 
Horace  F.  Webb, 
Robert  L.  Whitcomb, 
Benjamin  G.  Ward, 
Franklin  A.  Wilson, 
J.  L.  Watson, 
Scott  Wilson, 
Frederick  Walker, 
Stephen  H.  Weeks, 


Portland,  Me. 


Cumberland  Center,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


Stockholm,  Sweden. 

South  Portland,  Me. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 


((  U 


Portland,  Me. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Portland,  Me. 

U  (( 

South  Portland,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


Bangor,  Me. 
Portland,  Me. 


«  « 

u  « 

u  u 


Edward  B.  Winslow,  Portland,  Me. 

C.  B.  Woodman  Sons,  Westbrook,  Me. 
John  E.  Warren, 

J.  H.  Walker,  Worcester,  Mass. 

George  Peabody  Wetmore,  Newport,  R.  I. 

F.  S.  Witherbee,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Wayne  Knitting  Mills,  Fort  Wayne,  Ind, 

Eugene  H.  Yorke,  Portland,  Me. 


84 


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